Wednesday 23 May 2012

Freedom of Information legislation in OGP member states

In the last post, I argued that the Freedom of Information Act is an essential requirement for the success of the Open Government Partnership. Just as all our other freedoms such as freedom to life and of owning property are protected by laws lest it be violated, a similar legal protection must be accorded to our right to access information. If we consider all the countries in the OGP as those that are fully committed to transparency and openness of state-held information, let us look at how they fare when it comes to setting up freedom of information legislations. Here, we are only using the existence of a freedom of information legislation passed by the parliament and not whether this is implemented correctly as the latter is more open to interpretation. Only 4 countries, including Tanzania, who have joined the OGP do not have either a Freedom of Information Law or a draft bill in parliament.




* Information sourced from www.freedominfo.org

OGP COUNTRIES WITH NO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LEGISLATION:

HONDURAS
PHILIPPINES
COSTA RICA
TANZANIA



OGP COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE PASSED FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LEGISLATION:

ALBANIA
ARMENIA
BRAZIL
BULGARIA
CANADA
CHILE
COLOMBIA
CROATIA
DENMARK
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ESTONIA
GEORGIA
GREECE
ISRAEL
ITALY
INDONESIA
MONTENEGRO
MEXICO
NETHERLANDS
NORWAY
ROMANIA
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
SOUTH AFRICA
UKRAINE
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
URUGUAY
AZERBAIJAN
CZECH REPUBLIC
JORDAN
LATVIA
LIBERIA
MACEDONIA
PARAGUAY
PANAMA
SERBIA
SOUTH KOREA
SWEDEN
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
TURKEY
GUATEMALA
MALTA
PERU
MOLDOVA
EL SALVADOR
MONGOLIA
RUSSIA
LITHUANIA

OGP COUNTRIES THAT HAVE INTRODUCED A BILL OR DRAFT OF A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LEGISLATION:

SPAIN
KENYA
GHANA




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