More than 50 countries now have guaranteed their citizens the right to
know what their government is up to, and more than half of these
freedom of information laws passed in the last decade, according to an
updated global survey posted today on the Web by the virtual network of
openness advocates, freedominfo.org.
Four countries have adopted new freedom of information laws just since
the last edition of the survey was posted in September 2003. The global
survey released today was compiled and edited for freedominfo.org by
David Banisar of the University of Leeds and Privacy International as
the third in his series on the site, and includes links to the texts of
laws and concise commentary on their effectiveness or lack thereof.
The freedominfo.org site is edited by a multinational volunteer
Editorial Board, and is hosted and staffed by George Washington
University's National Security Archive, the leading non-profit user and
advocate of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Grants from the Open
Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
underwrite the site.
Contributed by Mikhail Doroshevich on 16 May, 2004
[from Content update - ICT for Development on the Development Gateway]
