Centre for Law and Democracy

The Global Climate Fund (GCF), a new international financial institution (IFI) which aims to use lending to promote compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is proposing to adopt an information disclosure policy. The Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) has prepared a Note on Better International Practices on Access to Information for the GCF Board, which will discuss this issue at its next meeting in Songdo, Republic of Korea, 25-28 June 2013.

Click here to read the Note

“The GTI welcomes the fact that the background document calls on the GCF Board to adopt a strong openness policy,” said CLD Executive Director, Toby Mendel. “We have prepared this Note as an initial input into the process, with a view to steering the Board towards better openness standards from the very beginning.”

A policy paper prepared for the GCF Board, Information Disclosure, including Webcasting, proposes the adoption of an interim policy, to provide clear rules on information disclosure in the short term, followed by the adoption of a full policy, based on better practice at other IFIs, after a process of consultation with civil society. The GTI supports this approach. At the same time, the Note highlights some problems with the standards quoted in the policy paper, most importantly in relation to the regime of exceptions. This is an area where IFI information policies still lag far behind better practice national right to information laws.

Globally, there has been significant progress in terms of strengthening IFI information policies over the last five to ten years. We urge the GCF to continue this process, taking advantage of the gains while also avoiding the shortcomings of existing IFI policies. We specifically call on the GCF to ensure that the policy has a narrow regime of exceptions which is limited in scope to what is needed to protect legitimate interests against harm.

The launch of Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (Tshwane Principles) today was the culmination of a multi-year consultation process to set out a careful balance between protecting genuine national security interests and respecting the right to information. The consultation process involved 100s of individuals and 22 key support institutions, including the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD).

Click here full copy of the principles

“The Tshwane Principles build on earlier work, including the Siracusa Principles and the Johannesburg Principles,” said CLD Executive Director, Toby Mendel. “But they take this work forward by updating those documents and in terms of their level of detail and sophistication.”

The Principles reaffirm many established standards regarding the right to information, but they also break important new ground. While they avoid defining national security directly, Principle 9 provides a clear statement of the categories of information that may qualify as falling within the scope of national security. Importantly, Principle 10 lists a number of categories of information in relation to which there is a high or overriding presumption of openness.

Now that the process of developing the Tshwane Principles has come to an end, the far more difficult task of promoting their implementation at the national level will start. The Centre for Law and Democracy urges all stakeholders to contribute to this process, including by disseminating the Principles widely. For its part, CLD will now start to integrate the Principles into its research, capacity building and advocacy activities.

Centre for Law and Democracy calls on the Ukrainian Parliament to adopt Draft Law No. 0947 before summer recess and align Ukrainian legislation with the new information laws that were passed in 2011. Draft amendments have been pending in the Parliament since May 2012 and are necessary for the proper implementation of the landmark 2011 Law of Ukraine on Access to Public Information, which has been recognized as one of the best right to information laws in the world.

Draft Law No. 0947 was prepared in 2011 by civil society experts and was submitted to the parliament by the Government in May 2012. It includes amendments to more than 55 legislative acts and provides, among others, the following important changes:

• Strengthening administrative sanctions for violation of the Access to Public Information Law, in particular with regard to infringement of the rules on proactive publication and consideration of the public interest;
• Removing the presumption that all critical comments about a person are false, unless the commentator (e.g. journalist) proves otherwise, which has had a chilling effect on the media;
• Providing public access to meetings of representative authorities (the national parliament and local councils);
• Making information about activities of local authorities open, including their decisions and meetings, and increasing the transparency of information about budget expenditures and management of public property, with a prohibition on restricting access to general and detailed plans of cities and towns;
• Improving transparency of public procurement and privatization processes and statistics, as well as of information held by financial institutions and monopolies;
• Publication of annual declarations of assets, income and expenses of public officials on the official websites;
• Bringing legal provisions on state secrets in line with the Access to Public Information Law, particularly with regard to the public interest test;
• Balancing the right to privacy with right to information guarantees by amending the Data Protection Law and the Law on Archives.

Free access to information held by public entities is a fundamental human right. It is an important guarantee that facilitates a number of other human rights and freedoms in a democratic society and helps to prevent and detect corruption and other official wrongdoing.

Centre for Law and Democracy therefore supports speedy adoption by the Ukrainian Parliament of the Draft Law No. 0947 in its final reading and its signing into law by the President. This is a crucial next step in guaranteeing the right to information in Ukraine and to set a positive example for other countries in the region.

Four major draft laws relating to media reform that address the press, electronic press, a national press council and professional journalists are currently being considered in Morocco. Today, the Centre for Law and Democracy released an Analysis which, while noting positive elements in the draft laws, urged that further changes be made before they are passed into law.

Click here to read the Analysis

Some of the more serious concerns identified include:
• Membership in the National Press Council is mandatory, effectively making the Council a gatekeeper regarding who can be a journalist.
• Moral character and experience requirements are imposed on journalists that represent a bar to joining the profession.
• It is an offence, with the possibility of a significant fine, to criticise foreign leaders or the Moroccan monarchy, or to make statements that harm Islam or Morocco’s territorial integrity.
• Defamation remains a criminal offence, with heavier fines for defaming public officials.
• There is a system for emergency blocking of websites containing defamatory material.

“We welcome the fact that Morocco is involved in a process of reforming its media laws,” said CLD Executive Director, Toby Mendel. “More work is needed, however, to ensure that the laws respect international standards and the right of the media to operate independently.”

The draft laws were recently the subject of public consultations, including a conference on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2013, attended by the Centre for Law and Democracy. CLD has provided comments to the Ministry of Communication, and we urge the government to incorporate our recommendations before the laws are adopted.

The spread of the Internet has led to an unprecedented flowering of expression, democratising the flow of information and allowing ordinary people to access an incredible diversity of news and ideas. By the same token, the Internet has challenged the ability of governments to control information, and some have responded by adopting repressive laws. The September 2012 amendments to Jordan’s Press and Publication Law, which imposes strict registration requirements on news websites, are a good example of this. On 2 June 2013, Jordan’s government used the legislation to block over 300 websites on the basis that the websites had not registered.

“These blocking orders are a flagrant violation of freedom of expression and should be rescinded immediately,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “Furthermore, the root cause of the problem, the 2012 amendments to the Press and Publication Law, should be repealed; even if they are not formally imposed, they exert a chilling effect on online speech.”

In addition to imposing significant costs, the registration requirements require news websites to appoint an editor-in-chief, who must have at least four years’ standing as a member of the Jordanian Press Association. The amendments also require website owners to vet any comments that their users post for offensive material and for “truthfulness”, or risk liability. These rules breach the right to freedom of expression as protected under international law, according to which any mandatory requirement to register websites is not legitimate.

CLD will be releasing a full analysis of the amendments in the coming weeks.

Indonesia’s Law on Public Information Disclosure came into force in 2010, but implementation so far has been uneven. Some public bodies have done an excellent job, while others have largely failed to respond to their openness obligations. In an effort to address this, on 29-30 May the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the Indonesian Centre for Environmental Law (ICEL) provided training for local public officials from seven provinces and regencies across Indonesia. Response to the training was extremely enthusiastic, with some public bodies covering their own costs to be able to participate.

“Indonesia’s right to information law has the potential to transform relations between citizens and government at the local level,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But for this to happen, local government has to meet its obligations under the law.”

Some of the public bodies represented at the training have already appointed dedicated information officers and established openness systems, and are looking to improve their performance. Others are just beginning the process of implementation. Participants engaged in animated dialogue with Indonesian and international experts on the benefits and structures of Indonesia’s right to information law.

“We are happy to have received such positive engagement from the officials who attended,” said Dessy Eko Prayitno of ICEL. “We hope that they will carry the lessons they learned with them back to their workplace, and apply them in their provinces and regencies.”

CLD and ICEL developed a special manual (available in Bahasa here) to carry out the training. This activity is part of a broader programme sponsored by Open Society Foundations aimed at boosting implementation of the right to information in Indonesia. The programme also includes demand-side support, grassroots activities and the production of resource materials.

More information on the work of CLD and its partners in Indonesia is available on our project websites here (in English) and here (in Bahasa).

The second Conference on Media Development in Myanmar, held from 20-21 May 2013 and attracting over 300 participants, noted progress in several areas of media development, including the ongoing preparation of four laws, namely a print law; a printers and publishers law; a broadcasting law; and a public service media law. Participants at the conference also discussed reform of existing laws, and especially the defamation law, and the possibility of preparing a right to information law.

In an immediate follow-up to the conference, Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and International Media Support (IMS), in partnership with Mizzima Media, hosted two workshops to discuss these issues: one for members of the national and regional parliaments, focusing on media regulation; and one for lawyers, focusing on international standards and defamation.

“These workshops were part of our ongoing programme of support to the media law reform process in Myanmar,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “It is essential that different stakeholders understand key international standards regarding media regulation, and also other freedom of expression standards, especially as the reform process deepens.”

CLD and IMS have been working together to support the development of democratic media legislation. This has included a number of workshops for different stakeholders, and the provision of technical advice and written submissions on the four laws and related issues, such as the constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression and the draft code of ethics being prepared by the Press Council.

The workshop on defamation was the first time IMS and CLD have held an event focused on that issue. The aim was to provide lawyers with tools they can use to defend journalists and media outlets who face defamation suits. At the end of the workshop, participants agreed to take forward a discussion on ways to work more closely together to continue to build their skills in this area.

“The media development conference held on 20-21 May reaffirmed that journalists in Myanmar are experiencing an unprecedented level of freedom to exercise their rights. As these changes become more rooted, it will be important to ensure that journalists and media outlets have access to good legal advice if they need it,” said Jesper Højberg, Executive Director of International Media Support (IMS).

Today, the 14th annual Joint Declaration by the four specialised mandates tasked with promoting and protecting freedom of expression at the UN, OAS, OSCE and African Commission was launched in San José, Costa Rica. This latest Declaration, prepared with the assistance of the Centre for Law and Democracy and ARTICLE 19, highlights the importance of preserving and expanding diversity in the airwaves through the transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting, as well as concern that in some States, “commercial and political considerations have dominated” the debate.

“The digital terrestrial transition is importantly about efficiency gains in spectrum use,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD, who participated in the launch event. “States need to make sure that these gains lead to greater diversity in the media, given the centrality of diversity to the effective realisation of freedom of expression.”

Click here to read the Joint Declaration in English
Click here to read the Joint Declaration in Spanish
Click here to read the Joint Declaration in French
Click here to read the Joint Declaration in Arabic

The Joint Declaration elaborates in detail the measures States should take to protect and promote freedom of expression during the digital transition. It highlights the need for clear and consultative decision-making processes about this important social development, and for regulatory measures to be implemented only by a body which is protected against both political and commercial interference (i.e. by an independent regulator). It also provides a number of both recognised and more innovative options for States to consider with a view to fostering greater diversity in broadcasting.

Some of the other key points made in the Declaration include the following:
• The transition should not impact negatively on the ability of public service or community broadcasters to operate.
• Care should be taken to ensure that the transition does not lead to greater concentration of media ownership.
• Effective measures should be taken to prevent the transition leading to a digital divide.

The new right to information (RTI) legislation being proposed by the Danish government, the Act on Openness in Administration, signally fails to address the very serious problems in the current regime. Alongside minor improvements in some areas, there is substantial regression in terms of the regime of exceptions. Indeed, the new proposals score just one point out of a possible 30 for exceptions on the RTI Rating, a recognised international methodology for assessing the quality of legal frameworks for RTI, developed by the Centre for Law and Democracy and Access Info Europe (available at: www.RTI-Rating.org). The proposed law scores just 63 points out of a possible 150, which would put Denmark in 78th place globally out of 93 countries with RTI laws, just up from its current dismal ranking of 85th place.

Click here to read the Analysis
Click here for RTI Rating results for Denmark’s draft Act on Openness in Administration
Click here for the RTI Rating results for Denmark’s current law

“Developed democracies are no longer at the forefront on this key democracy issue,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “The Danish government has simply failed to take advantage of this opportunity to undertake the serious root-and-branch reform which is needed to bring it more into line with international standards on RTI.”

The Danish proposals have come under significant fire for their restrictive treatment of ministerial information. However, an analysis by CLD demonstrates that this problem is just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to several new exceptions, the major problems with the current system – including its limited scope, flexible time limits for responding to requests, the absence of a public interest override for exceptions and the lack of a dedicated administrative appeals body – have not been addressed.

The Centre for Law and Democracy has prepared a set of Comments on the draft Access to Information Law published by the Afghan government. There have been discussions in Afghanistan about a right to information law for some time. It is a positive step that the government has published official draft legislation with a view to obtaining public comments on it.

“The draft provides a good basis for discussion about this key issue,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But it could still be improved in important ways to give fuller effect to the right to information.”

Click here for the Comments
Click here for the draft Law

CLD’s Comments make a number of recommendations to improve the draft law, including the following:
• The law should apply to all information held by public authorities, not just information which is needed to protect a right or improve a public service.
• The scope of information subject to proactive disclosure should be expanded to cover more information about finances and implementation of the law.
• The procedural rules should be substantially revised to make it easier to make requests and to streamline processing of those requests.
• The access to information law should prevail in case of conflict with secrecy laws, and the regime of exceptions should be narrowed by subjecting all exceptions to a requirement of harm and by adding a public interest override.
• The independence of the oversight commission should be strengthened and its powers enhanced.
• Sanctions for the wrongful disclosure of information should be replaced by protection for those who disclose information in good faith.

The Centre for Law and Democracy welcomes efforts to adopt a right to information law in Afghanistan, and urges the government to bring the draft law more fully into line with international standards before it is adopted.

Given the steady stream of corruption and mismanagement allegations that have emanated from the province in recent months, it is hardly revelatory to suggest that Quebec has a problem with transparency. A Submission released today by Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) spells out in the detail the nature of these problems, and how Quebec’s legal framework for access to information needs to be changed to bring it into line with international standards in this area.

Click here to read the Submission

The Submission identifies a litany of deficiencies, including overly broad exceptions, the limited scope of the law, routine breaches of timelines and overcharging of requesters. It also notes that several public authorities, including ministers’ offices, municipalities and members of the National Assembly, are under no firm obligation to disclose any information, instead having the discretion to release information only when they feel this would be expedient.

“Previous studies carried out by CLD have found significant problems in every jurisdiction in Canada,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But even in this weak peer group Quebec is noticeably deficient. We urge the Government of Quebec to seize this opportunity to take action to put a stop to the culture of secrecy and the harm it engenders.”

The Submission was prepared for a general consultation and public hearing being held by the Province of Quebec’s Committee on Institutions that is meant to address, among other issues, the implementation of Quebec’s Act Respecting Access to Documents Held by Public Bodies and the Protection of Personal Information.

The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and International Media Support (IMS) today released Comments on the draft Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law (draft Law) released by the Ministry of Information of Myanmar in early March 2013. In August 2012, the Ministry tasked the Interim Press Council with preparing a draft Press Law, and the release of the draft Law by the Ministry came as a surprise to many observers. As the Comments make clear, the draft Law fails in important ways to conform to international standards regarding media freedom.

Click here to read the Analysis

“The important steps Myanmar has taken over the last year and a half to bolster respect for freedom of expression in practice now need to be anchored in a democratic legal framework,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy. “The draft Printing and Publishing Enterprises Law, the first draft media law to be formally published by the government, fails to do this.”

The CLD/IMS Comments make a number of recommendations, including the following:
➢ Consideration should be given to doing away entirely with the system of registration for publishers, printers, news agencies and imported publications.
➢ If registration is retained, it should be limited in scope, not involve onerous procedures and be overseen by an independent body.
➢ Any restrictions on the content of what may be published in the media should be in line with international standards and the Ministry of Information should play no role in applying these rules.

We urge the Myanmar authorities to allow the Interim Press Council to complete its work of preparing a draft press law, and then to hold discussions on legal regulation of the print media based on that draft.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has launched a review its Transparency Policy, last revised in 2009. As part of the Review, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) has produced a Submission assessing the current policy against the standards developed by the Global Transparency Initiative (GTI) (www.ifitransparency.org). Some international financial institutions (IFIs) – including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank – have made significant progress on transparency in the recent years; the IMF Policy, in contrast, remains limited to a proactive disclosure list approach.

Click here to read the Submission

“The IMF recognises the importance of transparency in its documents,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “But it fails to give proper effect to this in its policy; the new policy needs to establish a proper presumption of disclosure with a full regime for making requests for information.”

The current IMF Transparency Policy is essentially a list of the documents that the IMF is committed to releasing proactively. Even for this list, the Policy grants extensive veto powers to States regarding information which relates to them. The Policy does not provide for any system for making requests for the vast majority of the information it holds. It also lacks other key elements of a proper presumption of disclosure system, such as a limited, harm-based system of exceptions and a right of appeal to an independent oversight body.

Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LWRC) are pleased to note that Mam Sonando, a Cambodian broadcaster who had been detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression, has been released. He was released only after spending eight months in prison.

At an Appeal Court hearing on 14 March 2013, at the prosecutor’s request, the more serious charges against Mam Sonando, namely insurrection and incitement to take up arms against the State, were dropped, while charges of obstruction of officials and unlawful interference in the discharge of public functions were maintained, and a charge of and occupation of forestry land was added. The Appeal Court cut his sentence to five years, suspended the remainder of his sentence, but placed him on probation for three years. The probation may place Mam Sonando at heightened risk of further arbitrary detentions for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.

We believe that the charges against Mam Sonando were politically motivated and unsubstantiated, as we made clear in a letter to His Excellency, Prime Minister Hun Sen on 5 October 2012 (available at: http://www.law-democracy.org/live/media/letters/).

Mam Sonando is the owner of one of Cambodia’s few independent radio stations and has been a prominent critic of the Cambodian government. His arrest was announced last July, the day after he appeared at the International Criminal Court to make a presentation to the Office of the Prosecutor on behalf of the Khmer People Power Movement on alleged crimes against humanity by the Cambodian government. Mam Sonando had been arrested twice before on spurious, politically motivated charges, both times after publicly criticising the Cambodian government.

We call on the Government of Cambodia to request that Mam Sonando be pardoned in relation to all charges. We also call on the government to respect the right of everyone, including those who criticise government, to freedom of expression.

In February 2013, the Centre for Law and Democracy was contacted by the Canadian Press regarding a Memorandum from the Treasury Board disputing CLD’s RTI-Rating of Canada. The Memo makes two key points in defence of Canada’s performance on RTI. The first is that the RTI Rating only measures the letter of the law and not the strength of its implementation and the second is that, notwithstanding problems in the legal framework, Canada’s overall commitment to openness, and to open data in particular, is strong. CLD Executive Director, Toby Mendel, responds to both points and calls for Root and Branch reform of the Canadian Access to Information Act, along with major shifts in official attitudes towards openness.

Click here to read the Letter

“CLD welcomes Canada’s commitment to transparency as demonstrated through its strong proactive disclosure policies and membership in the Open Government Partnership (OGP). However, this has no bearing on the serious structural deficiencies at the heart of Canada’s right to information framework, which is what the RTI Rating exposes”, writes CLD Executive Toby Mendel. “If the Government of Canada were to put in place a process to reform the ATIA, CLD would be more than happy to participate in and support this. Only in this way could we return Canada to a position in the global rankings that is becoming of a democracy of its stature.”

The authorities in Myanmar are drafting three pieces of media legislation as part of the process of transition to democracy: a print law (currently being prepared by the Interim Press Council); a broadcasting law (currently being prepared by Myanmar Radio and Television, MRTV); and a public service media law (currently being prepared by the Ministry of Information, MoI). Over the last week, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and Mizzima Media jointly hosted three workshops for different stakeholders – the media, civil society, political parties and members of parliament – to discuss international standards relating to freedom of expression and principles on media regulation.

“The huge interest in these workshops shows that different stakeholders in Myanmar appreciate the important role of freedom of expression and a free media in a democracy,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “I was particularly impressed that over 40 parliamentarians attended the workshop in Nay Pyi Taw, most of whom stayed for the whole day.”

The workshops are part of a broader programme of providing support for the development of democratic media legislation, which CLD has been undertaking jointly with International Media Support (IMS), and which has involved workshops, technical advice meetings and written submissions on the three laws and related issues (such as the constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression and the draft code of ethics being prepared by the Press Council).

“Raising awareness about democratic systems of media regulation is a crucial part of the transition process”, said Thin Thin Aung, Director, Training and Education, Mizzima Media. “Without such understanding, the different stakeholders will not be able to play their part in ensuring that the laws which get adopted help to foster a strong, independent and diverse media in Myanmar.”

The Government of Indonesia is proposing to replace its authoritarian 1985 law on civil society organisations (CSOs) with a new Law Pertaining to Mass Organisations. While this is generally a welcome development, an analysis by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) highlights a number of serious problems with the draft Law, which is currently before the National Assembly.

Click here to read the Analysis

“One of the great successes of Indonesia’s transition to democracy is the extremely vibrant civil society that has flourished since the end of the Suharto regime in 1998,” said CLD Executive Director Toby Mendel. “The 1985 law should be replaced, but certainly not by a law that affords an even greater degree of government control over the activities of civil society.”

In practice, the 1985 law has not been applied since Suharto’s fall. Some of the more problematical aspects of the draft Law include:
• Broad powers vested in government to impose sanctions on CSOs without going to court.
• Illegitimate restrictions on the activities of CSOs.
• Unduly prescriptive rules regarding the way in which CSOs should be structured and managed.
• Rules which give the government a significant measure of control over the activities of foreign CSOs.

We call on the Government of Indonesia to reconsider the approach taken in the draft Law and to revise it to bring it more closely into line with international standards. The provisions which give officials greater control over CSOs are particularly problematical.

Weak civil society demand for information, combined with a lack of understanding about how to make requests for information, can be a major implementation weakness in countries seeking to implement new right to information (RTI) laws. To help address this problem in Indonesia, the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) have just completed a training of trainers programme in Jakarta. Trainees from across Indonesia will follow up by conducting training programmes for civil society organisations in their home provinces of West Java, South Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara and North Sulawesi. Those groups will then be expected to lodge a minimum of ten requests for information related to the areas in which they work, while the trainers will provide support to them through this process.

“Experience in many countries shows that weak demand for information is one of the key factors undermining successful implementation of RTI regimes,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “We are seeking to build a core of groups in different parts of the country that have experience in making requests, which we hope will demonstrate the potential benefits of RTI for other groups working in their sectors.”

“Although it has been in effect since 1 May 2010, implementation of the RTI Law is still very weak”, said Eko Maryadi, President of AJI. “Public bodies have not taken the necessary steps to implement the law and they are still trapped in culture of secrecy.”

The training program is part of a broader programme sponsored by Open Society Foundations aimed at boosting the right to information in Indonesia. The programme also includes supply-side interventions, grassroots activities and the production of resource materials.

More information on the programme, as well as versions of the training manual in both English and Bahasa Indonesia and other resources, are available at: http://www.law-democracy.org/live/projects/rti-in-indonesia/.

The 15th Philippine National Congress failed to pass a right to information (RTI) law, despite promises by the Aquino administration – to the Philippine people and in its Open Government Partnership (OGP) Action Plan – to ensure the adoption of this key democratic legislation. The Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD) and the Philippine based Institute for Freedom of Information have written to the OGP Steering Committee asking it to take action on this signal failure by the Philippine administration to live up to its promises and commitments. Efforts to adopt a right to information law, which continued until the very last minute, were ultimately unsuccessful, in circumstances reminiscent of the similar failure of the previous Congress.

Click here to read the Letter

“We have written to the OGP Steering Committee asking them to take action to signal to the Government of the Philippines that its actions are not in accordance with the norms and expectations of the OGP,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of CLD. “We believe that all Participating States should be expected to move decisively towards the adoption and proper implementation of an RTI law.”

The Philippine OGP Action Plan explicitly states that the FOI Act which the government had placed before Congress is a “critical component” of its Public Access to Information Initiative. Despite this, President Aquino failed to take the necessary steps to push for the enactment of the law by Congress, although this was well within his power. The situation is rendered even more unacceptable by the fact that the Philippines was an original OGP State and has been a member of the Steering Committee since the very beginning.

“We sincerely hope that the OGP Steering Committee takes decisive action in response to this fact that the Philippines still does not have an RTI law”, said Nepo Malaluan, Co-Director of the Institute for Freedom of Information. “If it does not, we believe that the credibility of the OGP will be at risk.”

The CLD/Institute for Freedom of Information letter includes as an annex a statement by the national campaign, The Right to Know, Right now! Coalition expressing deep disappointment about the failure of the Philippine authorities to adopt an RTI law.