"This guide follows a regional conference hosted by FAIR during September 2012 in Nairobi (Kenya) where more than 40 journalists, editors and media representatives discussed issues around ‘War on Terror in East Africa: security, elections and transparency. The programme also combined regional case
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study presentations with technical skills training. Ron Nixon (New York Times and founder of the Ujima project) provided insight on ‘how to follow government spending through public information’. His session demonstrated there is a lot of data about African state spending freely available on the internet, such as US department databases, service contracts, legal documents and US aid agency websites. Although termed ‘classified’ by some Ministries, data on government programmes can be obtained via the US Freedom of Information Act, for example. The selection of websites and documents presented by Ron Nixon at the Nairobi workshop, and also contained in this guide, is meant to enable investigative journalists to dig deeper using various tools and sources without getting into trouble. The ultimate objective is to show how data from external sources can be used by African journalists to expose forms of secret lobbying and foreign aid that do not help development." (Foreword)
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"GISWatch 2012 explores how the internet is being used to ensure transparency and accountability, the challenges that civil society activists face in fighting corruption, and when the internet fails as an enabler of a transparent and fair society. The eight thematic reports and 48 country reports pu
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blished ask provocative questions such as: Is a surveillance society necessarily a bad thing if it fights corruption? And how successful have e-government programmes been in fighting corruption? They explore options for activism by youth and musicians online, as well as the art of using visual evidence to expose delusions of power. By focusing on individual cases or stories of corruption, the country reports take a practical look at the role of the internet in combating corruption at all levels." (Back cover)
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"Informationsfreiheit ist in Verfassungen, Gesetzen und internationalen Konventionen verankert. Die Ausübung dieses Rechts stößt jedoch in Subsahara-Afrika vielerorts an enge Grenzen – der Trend zu mehr Offenheit auf dem Papier setzt sich im politischen Alltag zumeist nicht fort. Als politische
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s Menschenrecht ist Informationsfreiheit elementarer Bestandteil einer Demokratie. Sie ermöglicht politische Teilhabe und fördert transparentes Regierungshandeln. Darüber hinaus ist Informationsfreiheit eine Voraussetzung für die Verwirklichung zahlreicher sozialer und wirtschaftlicher Rechte. Eine politische Kultur, die den wiederkehrenden, friedlichen und demokratischen Machtwechsel als Selbstverständlichkeit begreift, ist Voraussetzung dafür, dass Umsetzungsmechanismen greifen und Informationsfreiheit eine Realität wird." (Seite 1)
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"The right to privacy and the right to information are both essential human rights in the modern information society. For the most part, these two rights complement each other in holding governments accountable to individuals. But there is a potential conflict between these rights when there is a de
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mand for access to personal information held by government bodies. Where the two rights overlap, states need to develop mechanisms for identifying core issues to limit conflicts and for balancing the rights. This paper examines legislative and structural means to better define and balance the rights to privacy and information." (Executive summary)
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"What has been the state-of-play for African media in the 20 years since the historic Windhoek Declaration of 1991 which gave rise to World Press Freedom Day every 3 May? And what can be expected over the next decade? More than 70 commentators illuminate the trajectory in a range of contributions in
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this book - covering the issues of media freedom, pluralism, independence and access to information. Journalists’ safety, gendersensitive reporting, and the role of the Internet are amongst the topics covered. In a nutshell, progress has been made since 1991, but much remains to be achieved. There’s a grave danger that the momentum of media freedom is slowing and even reversing in many countries. Meanwhile, the rise of new communications technologies puts pressure on African journalists to live up to their ideals more than ever." (Back cover)
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"This report reviews five pieces of legislation affecting the freedoms of assembly and expression that have been introduced in recent years in Iraq. Of these, only one, the Journalists Rights Law (Journalist Law), has actually been passed into law, in August 2011. The other four – the draft Commis
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sion of Media and Communication Law (draft CMC Law), the draft Informatics Crimes Law (draft Internet Law), the draft Political Parties Law (draft Parties Law) and the draft Law of Expression, Assembly, and Peaceful Protest (draft Assembly Law) – have not yet been formally adopted as laws. Together, the five laws cover a wide range of issues including restrictions on the content of what may be published or broadcast, whether over the airwaves or the Internet or via some other media, the establishment of political parties, how to apply to hold an assembly or demonstration, restrictions on such events, the overall system for regulating broadcasting, including the oversight body and the regimes for licensing and controlling content, and special rules for journalists. This report assesses the rules contained in these laws against constitutional and international human rights standards, in particular relating to freedom of assembly and expression." (Introduction, page 3)
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"This book, through five case studies in India, explores communication rights movements here. It encompasses pivotal areas of movements, such as, Right to Information, Free and Open Source Software, Women and Media, and Community Radio and Citizen Journalism. The complexity of specific agendas in In
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dia, such as, rights of women, citizen activism and role of media is analyzed while placing the subject in a broader theoretical context. The author makes a strong case of the right of people to be able to access information. He also explores processes through which ordinary citizens are able to develop spaces for self-expression; a concept synonymous with media democratization in this century. The author highlights the need to ‘localize’ communication rights struggles in those places facing real communication deficits daily." (Publisher description)
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"This paper identifies four primary drivers of proactive disclosure throughout history. The first is the need to inform the public about laws and decisions and the public’s right to be informed, to know their rights and obligations. The second is the public’s demand for the information needed to
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hold governments accountable both at and between elections. The third is the demand for information in order to participate actively in decision-making. The fourth is the provision to the public of information needed to access government services, which has expanded significantly in the past decade with growth of electronic access to services or “egovernment.” [...] The recently adopted legal frameworks which include proactive disclosure regimes (Section 3) point to an emerging standard on the classes of information which should be made available at the core of any national proactive disclosure regime. The national standards are reiterated and complemented by provisions by international international bodies (Section 4). These international provisions make clear that, in addition to having numerous benefits for public bodies and for members of the public, proactive disclosure is an obligation that is part of the right of access to information. From comparing the national and international provisions it is possible to identify a set of 14 core-minimum of classes of information for proactive disclosure." (Executive summary, page 1)
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"Access to knowledge (A2K) is the umbrella term for a movement that aims to create more equitable public access to the products of human culture and learning. Fields of advocacy that it subsumes include most centrally copyright and patent law reform, open access, open data and open standards, but al
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so access to public information, broader communications rights such as freedom of expression, and issues around ownership of and participation in public media." (Page 2)
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"Esta guía realizada en conjunto por Periodismo Social, Poder Ciudadano, Asociación por los Derechos Civiles, se propone como una herramienta indispensable para los profesionales que deben enfrentarse diariamente con políticos y funcionarios públicos en los distintos momentos de la vida democrá
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tica: campaña – gestión- rendición de cuentas. Se trata de una herramienta de consulta gratuita en la que se acercan instrumentos claves como fuentes y pautas para el mejoramiento de la cobertura de temas vitales y cotidianos pero poco o superficialmente tratados. En muchas ocasiones los periodistas suelen ser manipulados por parte de los gobernantes y terminan siendo funcionales a las necesidades y objetivos de promoción de los mismos en lugar de cumplir con su papel de informar con precisión a la opinión pública. Por lo tanto, este cuadernillo tiene como objetivo de máxima fortalecer la institucionalidad democrática al intentar transparentar los actos de gobierno por medio de las armas del periodismo tradicional: investigación, seriedad y cumplir con el mandato del derecho a la información pública." (Introducción, página 7)
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