Partners across the Access to Information Community of Practice have been hard at work this summer. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to, and book your tickets for our exciting new webinar!
At mySociety, we’ve had a packed few months: in May we kicked off a new three-part webinar series on the practical applications of ATI, focusing on climate. We introduced new WDTK Learn pages, and in June we were thrilled to host so many organisations at TICTeC and our ATI day. All of the sessions from TICTeC are now available to watch on YouTube: I’d definitely recommend checking out network members Marzena, Liset and Krisztina‘s sessions.
In July, we were lucky enough to attend the International Conference of Information Commissioners (ICIC) in Berlin. This year’s event brought together around 200 participants from 85 countries and, for the first time, featured a civil society day alongside the commissioners’ closed sessions — resulting in a civil society declaration.
The conversations throughout the week reinforced many of the themes raised during our ATI day, including the tension between privacy rights and transparency, the shrinking civic space in some regions, and the growing need for civil society to support embattled Information Commissioners. The conference sparked new connections and revived old ones, and it left us thinking ambitiously about where the network could go next!
Speaking of the network, how about some more updates:
In Poland, Citizens’ Network Watchdog has been active on many fronts: working with partners on anti-SLAPP and AI governance; influencing policy to protect NGOs’ access to courts; continuing legal advocacy around contract transparency and government surveillance; and successfully engaging communities through podcasts, roadshows and court wins. They’ve also raised concerns about Poland’s absence from the newly launched European Network for Transparency and Right to Information (ENTRI).
In the Netherlands, SPOON and Access Info Europe collaborated to publish legal recommendations for strengthening the Open Government Act (OGA), aligning it more closely with international standards. These were shared with government, oversight bodies, and the Council of Europe’s Access Info Group. Across Europe, Access Info also just announced the second winner of the Helen Darbishire Award, congrats to The Forever Lobbying Project!
Meanwhile, Ma Dada in France continues to serve its growing community despite funding challenges. While operational work is paused, the site recently passed 2,000 users and hit 50,000 requests – a clear sign of continued demand. mySociety and MaDada are making great progress on some GDPR technical work as a result of a successful bid to NLNet.
In Croatia, Gong has wrapped up a national workshop tour and launched a social media campaign to boost ATI awareness via ImamoPravoZnati. They’ve also been testing the ATI law’s strength by filing requests and complaints around the recent local elections.
What’s next?
Whether through litigation, policy, storytelling or platform-building, it’s inspiring to see the range and reach of our collective efforts across Europe and beyond! The inspiration doesn’t stop there: please join us on Tuesday 19th August for our next FOI in practice webinar, this time focussing on the topic everyone is talking about – AI! We’ve got three great speakers and we’d love to see you there.
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Photo by Audrius Sutkus on Unsplash
