China's limited push model of FOI legislation

China has adopted a push model of Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation that emphasizes proactive disclosure of government information. This differs from a pull model that stresses citizen-initiated access or reactive disclosure. The push model of FOI legislation, which has reduced the importance of access requests in China, grew out of its local causes. However, the degree of push or proactive disclosure under China's current FOI Regulations is undermined by several factors, including a limited access mechanism, broad and vague exemptions, and the omission of the maximum disclosure principle.     

Compliance with freedom of information legislation by public bodies in South Africa

In South Africa, freedom of information (FOI) is entrenched in section 32 of the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right of access to any information held by the state or by any other person that is to be used for the protection or exercise of any right. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) is the law that gives effect to section 32 of the Constitution. Regardless of a remarkable trend towards the adoption of FOI laws, international trends have shown this does not automatically translate into fulfilment of people's right to information. This study utilised mixed method research through the explanatory sequential design to assess compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa, with a view to develop a model for implementation of FOI. The study first conducted a quantitative study by analysing the reports of the South African Human Rights Commission from the reporting years 2006/07 to 2016/07 to assess compliance with sections 14, 15, 16, 17 and 32 of the PAIA. Thereafter, a qualitative study through interviews with purposively chosen participants was conducted to substantiate the findings of a quantitative study. Key results suggest that over the years, there were problems in the implementation of the FOI legislation in South Africa and its use was limited. Where implementation has taken place, it has been partial and inconsistent. The responsibility for the implementation of FOI legislation in most public bodies is assigned to legal departments that do not have knowledge of what records are created, and where and how they are kept. With regard to compliance, in terms of the degree of comparison, the situation was better in national departments, worse in provincial departments and worst in municipalities. The study recommends the establishment of an information governance unit to implement FOI in public bodies. Failure to assign responsibility to a relevant unit would perpetuate the non-compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa. A model for the implementation of PAIA within a public body is suggested.     

Assessing the performance of freedom of information

How well has the UK FOI Act worked in practice now that it has been in force for 4 years? This article discusses how to measure the performance of FOI regimes. It presents the evidence on the performance of FOI in the UK measured against comparative data from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland, countries with access to information legislation and similar political systems. On a range of measures, the UK Act is found to have performed reasonably well, but it also suffers from problems common to all FOI regimes. The article concludes with some observations on what makes for a successful FOI regime, and how to measure it.     

Information governance,records management,and freedom of information: A study of local government authorities in England

In many democratic states political rhetoric gives weight to increasing public participation in and understanding of the political process; (re)-establishing public trust in government decision making; increasing transparency, openness, and accountability of public authorities; and, ultimately, improving government decision-making on behalf of citizens. Access to the public record and freedom of information (FOI) are mechanisms which help to facilitate the accountability of public authorities. Many jurisdictions have introduced legislation related to these mechanisms, and the UK government is no exception with its enactment of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2000. University College London (UCL) ran a research project over 12 months in 2008–2009, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research project examined what the impact of the UK FOIA had been on records management services in public authorities, especially local government. This article reports on some of the findings of the study. It considers how FOI compliance and records management functions are organized in local government and the role of information governance which is emerging as an umbrella for such functions. It draws some conclusions about the contributions that records management services make to the ability of local authorities to comply with the FOIA and identifies some ways in which user experience may be affected by the management of records.     

Freedom of information and government records in Kenya,Uganda and Tanzania

James Lowry is the Deputy Director of the International Records Management Trust (IRMT). He was the lead researcher on the Aligning Records Management with ICT/e-Government and Freedom of Information in East Africa project, conducted by the IRMT from 2009 to 2011, with funding from the International Development Research Centre.

Freedom of Information (FOI) regimes can only be effective if government records are managed well. This article sets out the findings of research conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to establish the level of alignment between those governments’ FOI aspirations and their records management readiness for FOI. The article sets out a high-level regulatory framework for the effective management of government records in the ICT/e-government and FOI environments to highlight areas that could be addressed, in order to prepare for FOI in the three countries.     

Exploring FOI publicity patterns: The case of Italian municipalities

This paper aims to study FOI publicity implementation patterns by Italian municipalities' (>30,000 inhabitants). The analysis relies on data collected through an original survey of the municipalities' websites. Data allow inspecting the information that local governments disclose about the procedures for the presentation of FOI requests and how the FOI requests received in the past were managed. Cluster analyses reveal that the municipalities are rather heterogeneous in managing FOI publicity. Some of them provide full disclosure of relevant information; instead, others show non-compliance with the guidelines issued by the Italian central government. Regression analyses suggest that municipalities' size and income positively correlate with more elevated publicity. Civic capital is also positively connected with information about the procedures for presenting FOI requests. Factors affecting the demand for information about FOI, such as education and access to the internet, do not seem to be linked with publicity patterns.     

Popular information: An analysis of FOI use and behavior

A substantial amount of freedom of information research exists, though a majority is focused on U.S. laws' outcomes and FOI's shortcomings. But little is known about who makes requests and why requests are made in the United States. The exploratory study addresses these gaps via a nationally representative survey across key demographic variables of 1116 U.S. residents. Analysis found advanced education to be a strong, positive predictor of FOI familiarity and request submission. Malegender and a belief that FOI improves government accountability were also found to be significant predictors of FOI knowledge and use. The survey sampled U.S. residents, but the results may have international application and suggest continued research on who uses FOI laws and why.     

信息获取权利：政府信息公开的法理基础

《世界人权宣言》第19条所确立的信息权利可以派生出信息获取权利,这是一种新的信息权利。信息获取权利是各国政府信息公开立法的基础。有两种不同的信息权利：信息生产者或拥有者的信息权利和信息使用者的信息权利,信息公开立法主要依据第二种。保障公民信息获取权利是公共图书馆制度和政府信息公开制度的共同基础。     

Ideology beyond partisanship: The behavior of judges on freedom of information cases in Chile

Based on an original database on votes in non-unanimous decisions (n = 502) in an independent administrative tribunal resolving Freedom of Information (FOI) cases between 2009 and 2017 in Chile, this research tests whether partisanship and ideology explain judges' decisions on administrative information disclosure. We specify a logistic model with pairs cluster bootstrapped t-statistics to account for votes nested in judges and calculate correcting standard errors. The study indicates that when appointing FOI judges close to their parties, politicians cannot count with responsive same party judges to rule in their favor when resolving FOI disputes. Nonetheless, ideology is a strong predictor of judges' decisions when resolving FOI disputes related to privacy and commercial secrets. In doing so, the study enhances our understanding of the behavior of administrative judges working in agencies in charge of controlling the government and sheds light on the role of ideology on adjudication in FOI disputes -an area of law barely explored empirically.     

Freedom of information and its impact in the United Kingdom

The UK Parliament passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in November 2000 after 3 years of government White Papers, consultation papers, and various Bills. The author served as special adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration which oversaw the Government proposals for legislation and the progress of the Bill into the House of Commons. The FOIA introduced pro-active publication of information via Publication Schemes, which were introduced on a staggered basis across the public sector and on January 1, 2005, rights of individual access were granted to individuals. The Act covers well over 100,000 public authorities in the UK and includes both Houses of Parliament. There is a power to add private bodies to the Act's coverage. The Act covers UK, English, Welsh, and Northern Irish public authorities. Scotland has its own FOIA which was enacted by the Scottish Parliament in 2002. The paper will examine the operation of the UK legislation and the role of the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal which deal with complaints of refusal and appeals respectively. The jurisprudence has been voluminous and now the English courts are beginning to hear appeals from the tribunal. The article will examine the major trends of the legislation and the problems presented by the legislation. The Government has already issued vetoes under the Act overriding the Commissioner's decision to grant access to the Cabinet papers relating to the Cabinet discussion on entering into war with Iraq and then on devolution of power to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The decisions to open up the files on MPs expenses have caused one of the major constitutional crises in the UK in the last 75 years. As well as examining the way the Act has been interpreted, the author will essay some preliminary analyses of the impact of the Act on the realization of government objectives in passing the Act. The FOIA does sit alongside other legislation allowing access to personal files and access to environmental information and the whole information debate is set in the context of heightened sensitivity and secrecy in time of the war on terror and the state's increasing capacity to demand, store, and share information. The UK experience of the information debate will be examined.     

Freedom of information and ‘vexatious’ requests — The case of Scottish local government

This paper investigates the cost and incidence of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within councils in Scotland and in particular, the cost and incidence of requests which have been defined as ‘vexatious’ in order to investigate if the negative perceptions surrounding the cost and misuse of the legislation are justified. Additionally, the criteria and guidelines that councils are using to define ‘vexatious’ are also examined. The approach taken to the research in this study is a survey of the 32 councils in Scotland using freedom of information requests as the data collection method.     

Do FOI laws and open government data deliver as anti-corruption policies? Evidence from a cross-country study

In election times, political parties promise in their manifestos to pass reforms increasing access to government information to root out corruption and improve public service delivery. Scholars have already offered several fascinating explanations of why governments adopt transparency policies that constrain their choices. However, knowledge of their impacts is limited. Does greater access to information deliver on its promises as an anti-corruption policy? While some research has already addressed this question in relation to freedom of information laws, the emergence of new digital technologies enabled new policies, such as open government data. Its effects on corruption remain empirically underexplored due to its novelty and a lack of measurements. In this article, I provide the first empirical study of the relationship between open government data, relative to FOI laws, and corruption. I propose a theoretical framework, which specifies conditions necessary for FOI laws and open government data to affect corruption levels, and I test it on a novel cross-country dataset. The results suggest that the effects of open government data on corruption are conditional upon the quality of media and internet freedom. Moreover, other factors, such as free and fair elections, independent and accountable judiciary, or economic development, are far more critical for tackling corruption than increasing access to information. These findings are important for policies. In particular, digital transparency reforms will not yield results in the anti-corruption fight unless robust provisions safeguarding media and internet freedom complement them.     

Piercing the veil: Examining demographic and political variables in state FOI Law administration

State and local governments play an important, and growing, role in everyday lives. The exploratory study positions FOI laws as a central mechanism in providing transparency to these more proximate governments. It is premised on a FOI audit, or field experiment, of 1002 requests across 9 U.S. state laws and 334 jurisdictions. The sample represents a broad cross-section of geographic, demographic and political variables, and the study analyzes these variables predictive and correlative value in determining outcomes, timeliness and communication in FOI requests. The results suggest significance in race and political variables in FOI outcomes and processes. The study's strongest finding was the influence of geographic location, namely the central South of the United States, and its considerable effect on FOI compliance.     

GILS,Government Information Locator Service: Blending Old and New to Access U.S. Governmental Information

Summary

U.S. government information resources, because of their vast quantity and lack of organization, and because of redundancies among agencies, have never been simple to locate. A budding electronic system, the Government Information Locator Service (GILS), is beginning to put structure into government information as well as to provide online pointers to government resources. This workshop explained the legislation behind the making of GILS, described its mission, and demonstrated actual searches for government information using the locator service.     

Statutory reform of the U.S. Government printing office A view from the GPO

Legislation has been introduced in the 104th Congress that would make sweeping changes to Title 44 of the U.S. Code, the authorizing laws for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). An analysis of this legislation, which was originally provided to Congress in August 1995 during hearings before the Committee on House Oversight, shows that it would have a substantially negative impact on government printing and distribution, in terms of increasing costs and reducing public access to government information. GPO today faces three major challenges: cutting costs, expanding the dissemination of government information in electronic formats, and combatting the decentralization of federal printing and distribution activities, which increases costs and impairs public access to government information through GPO's Federal Depository Library Program. The question is whether a complete overhaul of Title 44 would be more likely to place at risk a system of cost-effective, comprehensive, and equitable public access to government information that currently serves the nation well. This article suggests that the alternative is to continue with the program of downsizing and technological innovation and to seek statutory changes that would be consistent with GPO's strategic direction and that would recognize GPO's role in the emergent information age.     

政府信息公开与档案开放——兼论档案开放制度改革

《中华人民共和国政府信息公开条例》从制定到正式实施以来,给我国的政府信息公开开创了新的局面,也给我国的档案开放工作提出了一系列挑战。如何改革档案开放制度,使之与《政府信息公开条例》相互衔接,引起了众多档案人的思考。文章从政府信息公开与档案开放的关系入手,对档案开放制度改革提出一系列建议。     

《公共图书馆法》立法基础与必要性研究

1949年以来特别是改革开放以来我国公共图书馆事业有了长足发展.目前存在的主要问题是:事业发展不平衡,政府责任不到位,服务体系不完善,功能定位不清晰,人员结构不合理.公共图书馆立法在现行政策层面、学术研究层面以及地方性立法实践层面,已经有了较为坚实的基础.公共图书馆的"公共性"、公共图书馆活动的"社会性"以及普遍的国际经验,决定了立法保障公共图书馆事业发展的必要性.     

Freedom of information in Atlantic Canada

Freedom of information legislation was enacted in three of Canada's four Atlantic Provinces between 1977–1982 in response to public demand for more open and participatory government. The New Brunswick and Newfoundland statutes have conferred broad public information access with a right of appeal to the Ombudsman or a judge. This legislative structure has effectively sustained the remedial objectives of the legislation—an assessment qualified by low rates of recorded information requests and appeals, deficient public information systems, legislative exceptions, and the absence of privacy protection legislation. The Nova Scotia legislation provides broad information access rights, but lacks any independent review mechanism and is arguably a statement of principles of little more import than Prince Edward Island's absent legislation.     

英国政府信息资源再利用政策分析──以著作权管理为视角

英国政府信息资源再利用政策受到其著作权制度的直接影响。英国在政府信息著作权问题上的价值取向影响了政府信息资源再利用政策的制定,同时其立法理念与制度安排在落实国家信息战略、推动政府信息产业发展方面得到了不断的创新。英国政府信息资源再利用采取多种授权模式,实行收费政策,引入竞争机制,其政策制度的适用性、立法变革的必要性、收费制度的合理性、竞争机制的规范性、创新模式的可行性对我国政府信息资源管理具有借鉴意义。