Organizer: American University Washington College of Law
Date: September 28 2009
Event: Third Annual International Right to Know Day Celebration

Description:

In a development that barely could have been envisioned by the authors of the Freedom of Information Act four decades ago, and with a force that has been accelerating around the globe, people in more than 75 nations of the world now enjoy the benefits of "government transparency" laws akin to the FOIA. In the United States, "Freedom of Information Day" is celebrated each year on March 16, the birthday of James Mad¬ison, and since 2002 members of the international transparency community around the world likewise have celebrated annual "International Right-to-Know Day" on September 28, a day marking their progress and unity.

10:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction -- Daniel J. Metcalfe, Executive Director, Collaboration on Government Secrecy, American University Washington College of Law
10:15 a.m. Keynote Presentation: "Transparency in the UK and Beyond" -- Alasdair S. Roberts, Professor of Law and Public Policy, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University College London

11:30 a.m. Break

11:45 a.m. Kevin Dunion, Information Commissioner of Scotland, and Arne Fliflet, Information Commissioner of Norway -- via audio connection at the Sixth International Conference of Information Commissioners in Oslo, Norway

12:45 p.m. Lunch

1:45 p.m. Survey of Transparency Worldwide -- Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive; Jamie P. Horsley, Deputy Director, China Law Center, Yale Law School;
Toby McIntosh, Steering Committee Coordinator, Global Transparency Initiative

3:00 p.m. Restoration of U.S. International Transparency Leadership During the Obama Administration -- Kevin M. Goldberg, Legal Counsel, American Society of
Newspaper Editors; Miriam M. Nisbet, Founding Director, Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, and most recently Director, Information Society Division, UNESCO, Paris; and John Verdi, Director, Open Government Project, Electronic Privacy Information Center

Major support for this CGS program has been provided by the Open Society Institute's Transparency and Integrity Fund and its National Security and Human Rights Campaign.

Organizer: Global Transparency Initiative
Date: September 28 2009
Event: Looking Forward: Access to Information at the World Bank

Description:

“Looking Forward: Access to Information

at the World Bank”

Speakers:

Ø Peter Harrold, Director, OPCOS, World Bank

Ø Toby Mendel, Global Transparency Initiative and Senior Legal Advisor, Article 19

Ø Moderator: Samy Watson, World Bank Executive Director for Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenadines

Time: 12:30-2:00pm, lunch provided

Location: World Bank, Room MC9-100 (main complex)

RSVP by Friday 9/25 to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (for visitor pass and lunch order)

The World Bank will soon adopt a new policy on disclosure of information. Civil society organizations, such as the Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), have offered significant proposals for increasing the transparency of the World Bank and other international financial institutions.

In recognition of International Right to Know Day, please join a discussion with civil society organizations and World Bank staff on the future direction of the World Bank’s access to information framework.

The event will provide an opportunity for the World Bank to outline its forthcoming disclosure policy proposals. In addition, the Global Transparency Initiative will provide an overview of recent global trends in access to information and outline its recent “model disclosure policy” for the World Bank.

Organizer: Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions
Date: September 28 2009
Event: Free publication of "The Transparency President? The Obama Administration and Open Government,"

Description:

To mark International Right to Know Day, Governance is providing free access to Professor Cary Coglianese's article from its new issue (22.4, October 2009). In "The Transparency President? The Obama Administration and Open Government," Coglianese assesses the administration¹s early record on transparency and warns that high public expectations about openness may not be realized. He also raises larger questions about ³an excessive emphasis on fishbowl governance,² aimed mainly at the disclosure of details about how officials behave. The neglected alternative, says Coglianese, might be a strategy of  reasoned transparency,that demands that government officials offer explicit explanations for their actions.