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International Atlanta Declaration on Right of Access to Information
Declaration to Advance the Right of Access to Public Information Worldwide Released Today, Carter Center , March 26, 2008. Participants in a global conference on the right of access to public information have released the Atlanta Declaration and Plan of Action to advance access to information as a fundamental human right.
The conference, held Feb. 27-29, 2008, brought together more than 125 representatives of government, civil society, media, private sector, international financial institutions, donors, and academics from 40 countries at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The declaration states that "access to information is a fundamental human right; it is essential for human dignity, equity and peace with justice; and a lack of access to information disproportionately affects the poor, women, and other vulnerable and marginalized people."
- ATLANTA DECLARATION AND PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION The Carter Center, Atlanta Georgia. February 29, 2008.
Yoo Torture memo released
Secret Bush Administration Torture Memo Released Today In Response To ACLU Lawsuit (4/1/2008) American Civil Liberties Union. "A secret memo authored by the Department of Justice (DOJ) asserting that President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations to extract information from detainees was declassified today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The memo, written by John Yoo, then a deputy at the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), was sent to the Defense Department in March 2003."
- Memorandum for William J. Haynes II, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Re: Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States, by John Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel. March 14, 2003. Declassify under authority of Executive Order 1958 By Acting General Counsel, Department of Defense By Daniel 1. Dell'Orto, 31 March 2008.
News Stories:
- Memo: Laws Didn't Apply to Interrogators "Justice Dept. Official in 2003 Said President's Wartime Authority Trumped Many Statutes" By Dan Eggen and Josh White Washington Post. Wednesday, April 2, 2008; Page A01.
- ’03 U.S. Memo Approved Harsh Interrogations, By MARK MAZZETTI, New York Times, April 2, 2008. Continue reading
Bill aims to expose and limit exemptions to FOIA
A bill, the OPEN FOIA Act of 2008 (S.2746), was introduced in March by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX). It would add an important provision to last year's OPEN Government Act (PUBLIC LAW 110-175--DEC. 31, 2007) and attempt to make it harder for Congress to slip into bills language that would preclude the release of information to the public under FOIA.
More about the bill here:
- S. 2746 at GovTrack.us
- S. 2746 at Thomas
- Congress Needs to Learn a Little Openness Itself, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), March 13, 2008. Excperpt: "The new bill requires that when Congress provides for any statutory exemption to FOIA, it must state its intention to do so clearly and explicitly. It seems unobjectionable, right? Nevertheless, last year the Administration did object, and offered so many changes that the language got watered down until it ultimately was dropped from the OPEN Government bill."
- Congress Is Pushed To Make More Information Public, by Michael Posner, CongressDaily, March 31, 2008 PM edition [subscription required]. Excerpt: "Often the congressional-written exemptions are tucked into fine print in the middle of complex bill language. An example cited by the Senate Judiciary Committee staff is an exemption in a consumer protection bill banning lead in toys that allows keeping some product information confidential if a foreign government requests it.
OMB Watch Launches Regulatory Resource Center
OMB Watch Launches Regulatory Resource Center This from yesterday's email announcing the center:
Today, OMB Watch launched a web-based Regulatory Resource Center at www.ombwatch.org/regresources. The Resource Center provides tips for advocates who want to get involved in regulatory decision making and educational resources for anyone interested in how the federal regulatory process works. The first part of the Regulatory Resource Center is the Advocacy Center. The Advocacy Center shows users how to comment on federal regulations and provides instructions for using Regulations.gov, the government's portal for public comments. The Advocacy Center also has instructions for filing a petition for rulemaking and tips on how to find rules in the Federal Register. The second part of the Resource Center is the Policy Library. The Policy Library contains a flowchart showing how rules move through the regulatory pipeline; a list and brief description of rulemaking agencies; background information describing how the regulatory process works from beginning to end; and a glossary of common terms relating to regulation. The Policy Library also has a reference section, which provides links to legislation, executive orders, and government reports on regulatory policy.Continue reading
Updates on Net Neutrality
Here are some recent items about [w:Network Neutrality] that should, alternately, make your blood pressure rise and give you something constructive to do about it! (See also: Net Neutrality on FGI).
- Comcast Blocking: First the Internet — Now the Public February 25th, 2008 by jstearns. "Comcast — or someone who really, really likes Comcast — evidently bused in its own crowd. These seat-warmers, were paid to fill the room, a move that kept others from taking part."
- Comcast Manipulating NAACP on Net Neutrality, by: Matt Stoller, Wed Feb 27, 2008. "a flyer calling for a rally protesting the FCC under the NAACP's name, put out by a PR firm, and disavowed by the local NAACP as simply a 'draft', was going around on the same day as a net neutrality hearing that Comcast packed with a crowd they hired to prevent net neutrality advocates from attending.
- Net Neutrality's Quiet Crusader By Cecilia Kang, Washington Post, March 28, 2008; Page D01. [also available here] "A soft-spoken 30-year-old PhD candidate, Ben Scott has become an operator in multibillion-dollar battles involving corporate titans, regulators and consumers debating policies over who controls the media and the Internet."
- Software for Keeping ISPs Honest, by Peter Eckersley, March 28th, 2008. "...the general problem of ISPs doing strange things to Internet traffic without telling their customers is likely to continue in the future. EFF and many other organizations are working on software to test ISPs for unusual (mis)behavior. In this detailed post, we have a round-up of the tools that are out there right now, and others that are in development..."
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