Congratulations Roger and Brenno - this is a great achievement and it's fantastic that they'll pay back the money.
Will this help the Netherlands sign the Convention on Access to Official Documents? Helen From: [email protected] [mailto:foianet-bounces at foiadvocates.info] On Behalf Of Roger Vleugels Sent: 05 May 2010 09:29 To: Foianet, Subject: [foianet] Charging for processing FOIA requests blocked Dear collegues BREAKING NEWS: This week a court ruling made an end to one of the newest Wob obstructions in the Netherlands: charging for processing requests [Wob = FOIA] A few years ago the volume of WOB requests filed at municipalities started to rise sharply [Most of them filed by local press, citizens and some by local NGOs]. The municipalities did not like this extra [!!!] work. Their service body, the VNG [a quaNGO / so not wobbable itself] made an advice to obstruct requesters and the request volume via charging for processing Wob-requests. About 15% of the 400+ Dutch municipalities used this advice [meaning 85% did not, amongst them the 30 largest cities!] Those 15% charge for about 20 to close to 2000 euro per request for processing. In total requesters in the Netherlands have paid tens of thousands of euros during the last years. Two of the leading Wob practitioners [Brenno de Winter and I] started to fight this. From a legal point of view it is an easy fight because there is no legal ground for charging; and requesting is a common interesting thing; and disclosing is not a service but a duty; and for processing is already paid for via taxes; etc. Brenno realised last weeks court ruling: no grounds for charging for processing [Thanks Brenno :) ]. Several municipalities announced already that they will pay back [in my practice this totals up to more than 15,000 euros / in Brenno's also several thousand euros]. The coming weeks I expect that they all will pay back; that questions will be asked in parliament; and that this obstructive quaNGO [the VNG] will be made to change it policy. Educating govt bodies and especially quaNGOs is funtime...... :) Regards, Roger Vleugels Dutch based legal advisor and lecturer Wob & FOIA Publisher of the Fringe journals a.o. on FOIA news -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.foiadvocates.info/private.cgi/foianet-foiadvocates.info/attachments/20100505/24710179/attachment-0001.htm>
