FOI laws around the world

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 145-159

  Michener, Greg ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 80051625731     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: 10863214     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jod.2011.0021     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. Andreas Schedler, ''Authoritarianism's Last Line of Defense,'' Journal of Democracy 21 (January 2010): 70.
2. Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, the Cayman Islands, Chile, Guatemala, the Maldives, and the Philippines put laws into effect in 2009. Bermuda, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia, Malta, Russia, Sierra Leone, and Uruguay passed or put laws into effect in 2010.
3. I gratefully acknowledge the help of Roger Vleugels, FOI expert and publisher of the Fringe Journal, who kindly provided his most up-to-date list of countries with FOI laws. I cross-referenced this list with other sources.
4. Scotland adopted its own law in 2002.
5. See Sam Archibald, ''The Early Years of the Freedom of Information Act: 1955 to 1974,'' PS: Political Science and Politics 26 (December 1993): 726-31.
6. George Penn Kennedy, ''Advocates of Openness: The Freedom of Information Movement'' (PhD diss., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1978).
7. See, for example, Ivan Szekely, ''Central and Eastern Europe: Starting from Scratch,'' in Ann Florini, ed., The Right to Know (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 128.
8. Countries with FOI laws included: Armenia, Bulgaria, France, Mexico, Peru, Romania, and South Africa. Countries not in possession of full laws were: Argentina, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Macedonia, Nigeria, and Spain.
9. See Marian Wang, ''Watchdogs: Gov't Spent $196 Keeping Secrets for Every $1 Spent Declassifying Documents,'' Propublica, 7 September 2010, available at www.propublica.org.
10. Open Society Justice Initiative, Transparency and Silence: A Survey of Access to Information Laws and Practices in 14 Countries (New York: Open Society Institute, 2006).
11. According to the IFAI's María Marván Laborde, the IFAI workload doubled when it was given responsibility for the new (2010) Habeas Data law, yet its budget has only been increased by approximately 10 percent. Author's interview, Mexico City, December 2011.
12. Author's interview, Brasilia, Brazil, April 2009.
13. Fátima Monterrosa, ''Corrupción en el Estado Mayor Presidencial.'' Emeequis, 28 April 2008, 36-41. Available at www.m-x.com.mx/xml/pdf/117/34.pdf.
14. Data provided to the author by Germán Stalker, director of the Access to Information Unit, Subsecretariat for Institutional Reform and Democratic Strengthening.
15. Greg Michener, ''Government Decides to Keep Archives Closed: Opacity to Prevail Under Dilma?''; available at http://observingbrazil.com/2010/11/05/opacity-to-prevail-under-dilma-brazils-access-to-public-information-law.
16. Author's phone interview with Gergana Jouleva, executive director, Access to Information Program, Sofia, Bulgaria, January 2011.
17. The quotation is from Arvind Kejriwal. See Mehboob Jeelani, ''Dangerous Knowledge,'' available at www.caravanmagazine.in/Story/668/Dangerous-Knowledge.html.
18. Alasdair S. Roberts, ''A Great and Revolutionary Law? The First Four Years of India's Right to Information Act,'' Public Administration Review 70 (October 2010): 925-33.
19. Alasdair S. Roberts, Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 111.
20. Naeem Sadiq, ''Suppression of Information,'' Dawn.com, 28 January 2010.
21. Author's interview with Sandra Crucianelli, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, May 2008.