A newsletter containing news, views, articles, investigative stories in the field of Right to Information
From Around the World Issue No: 68 E - Alert Issue Date: 16-05-2013 India Right to Information activist fights social boycott in Himachal gulfnews.com Tissa, Himachal Pradesh: When a right to information (RTI) activist in Himachal Pradesh exposed misuse of public funds some years back, he did not expect that his fight for truth would expose him and his family to threats and social boycott. Hospitals 'not reporting hundreds of blundering doctors' Telegraph.co.uk Medical negligence consultant Ann Harris used the Freedom of Information Act to ask England's 163 NHS trusts how many doctors had two or more complaints made against them in the past five years, and how many had been reported to the GMC. The 54 ... 'Poor denied free treatment at major private hospitals' The New Indian Express Four hundred Right To Information applications and three years later, it has been found that 20 major hospitals in the city have denied free treatment to white ration card holders and violated the memorandum of understanding they signed with the state ... Minister dismisses criticism of ambulance wait times ABC Online The State Opposition has obtained figures through Freedom of Information that show almost 300 people waited over 45 minutes for an ambulance last year. In some cases it was an hour. Labor's health spokesman Andrew McDonald says the average waiting ... President reiterates call for protection of journalists; freedom of ... Associated Press of Pakistan The President on the eve of the Press Freedom Day (May 3) also called for the adoption of an appropriate and effective Freedom of Information legislation. The President in his message reiterated his commitment to the freedom of media with ... Over 6500 Indians in jails in 112 foreign countries Business Standard Over 6,500 Indian nationals are jailed in foreign countries, with a majority of them in the Gulf countries of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, the answer to a Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed. In reply to a Right to ... Women make up less than a quarter of RTE's highest earners Irish Independent Of the 80 staff paid more than €100,000 just 19 are women, new figures released under Freedom of Information have shown. And the figures reveal men dominate in all higher-paid jobs, with more women filling low-paid roles. Last month the Irish ... Criticism of PSC is 'ill-informed' Great Falls Tribune The Montana Freedom of Information Act is very straight-forward; any document that is in the possession of a government agency is available for scrutiny by the public unless the owner of the document is granted a protective order to seal the ... West Suffolk: Requests for information from hospital have tripled in five years East Anglian Daily Times DEALING with requests under the Freedom of Information Act has cost a hospital up to nearly £300,000 in the last decade New Jakarta Declaration Aims to Strengthen Rights to Environmental Information ... World Resources Institute Last week, representatives from China, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Thailand released the Jakarta Declaration for Strengthening the Right to Environmental Information for People and the Environment. The Declaration urges governments ... Hundreds of patients affected by NHS mistakes The Independent Freedom of information requests revealed 322 cases of “foreign objects” left inside patients' bodies in English hospitals in the past four years. Another 214 patients had surgery on the wrong body part, 73 had feeding tubes inserted into lungs, and 58 ... 7/11 Mumbai blasts: Accused uses RTI to show witnesses were lying Firstpost Accused Ethesham Siddiqui, during his examination by the defence lawyers, told the special MCOCA court yesterday here that he learnt through Right to Information Act that one of the prosecution witnesses was facing three criminal cases. Image for ... New group to offer legal aid to Indian detainees, especially Muslims Khabar Southeast Asia Through the Right to Information Act (RTI), the organisation will seek detailed information about undertrials – detainees whose cases have not been resolved – and convicts languishing in jails. The group will also seek bail for those with false charges ... Minister accused of wrongly blocking publication of Prince Charles letters The Guardian The government has resisted disclosing the letters since 2005, when the Guardian lodged a freedom of information request to see his correspondence with ministers over a seven-month period. The paper won a key victory last September when three judges ... Hungary: Government Limits FOIA Transparency Law Global Voices Online In an unexpected move last week, Parliamentarians in Hungary took action to change the country's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in an effort to limit the scope of data accessible to the public under the law. The Freedom of Information Act, known as ... Kannada films get the third highest cuts Times of India Information provided by the CBFC under the Right To Information Act to Pune-based activist Vihar Druve shows that since 2008, the maximum cuts were imposed on Tamil films followed by Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. This implies that south films are ... Six children went missing every day from Mumbai in last 3 years Times of India MUMBAI: Nearly six children on average went missing from Mumbai every day of the last three years and many of them are yet to be traced, a Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed. The Mumbai police recorded 6,345 cases of missing children (aged ... A quarter of NHS staff in Scotland claim they have been bullied Deadline News New figures, released under Freedom of Information, reveal that thousands of health staff, including nurses and doctors, report cases of intimidation and harassment every year. 22.5% of NHS workers who took part in a confidential health board survey ... Freedom of Information Law Faces First Legal Test AllAfrica.com The Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP) has filed a writ of mandamus with the Supreme Court of Liberia to compel the Independent Information Commission to conduct a hearing on its complaint against the Liberia Anti Corruption ... SERVICE BOOK A PUBLIC DOCUMENT UNDER RTI: SIC GreaterKashmir.com Jammu, May 14: In an important decision, the State Information Commission has ruled that Service Book of a government employee is a public document and every citizen has a right to get access to it. “Service details of public servants available in the ... Some public bodies failing on FOI requests - O'Reilly Irish Times Some public bodies are failing to recognise that responding to Freedom of Information requests is a statutory function that should be afforded as much weight as any other work, Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly has said. In her office's annual ... Zahid Abdullah - Programme Manager Transparency and Right to Information Program -------------------------------------------- Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan (CPDI-Pakistan) Tel: 051-2101594; 4319430; 2108287 URL: www.cpdi-pakistan.org
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