RTI Rating Examines International RTI Frameworks www.RTI-Rating.org 16 March 2012, Madrid/Halifax – Right to information laws in Africa and the Americas are falling below the standards set by regional human rights bodies, while in Europe the standards themselves are weaker than the better right to information laws, according to a new analysis by human rights organisations Access Info Europe (Spain) and the Centre for Law and Democracy (Canada). Applying the RTI-Rating tool, which measures the strength of right to information frameworks, to regional bodies’ model laws, the specialist right to information organisations found that the Organisation of American States’ Model

World's First Rating of Right to Information: 89 Countries Ranked www.RTI-Rating.org 28 September 2011 - On International Right to Know Day, Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy launched the first detailed analysis of the legal framework for the right to information (RTI) in 89 countries around the world. The findings of the RTI Rating show that there is a significant variety in the quality of the legal framework, with scores out of a maximum possible 150 ranging from 39 (Austria, one of 30 countries currently pending final review by national experts) to 135 (Serbia). The current

World Press Freedom Day special focus on the Right to Know 3 May 2010 is World Press Freedom day. It focuses this year on the «Right to Know», the right of everyone to access information held by public bodies. This right is an essential part of the right to freedom of expression anchored in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Proclaimed by the UN in 1993, World Press Freedom Day aims to raise awareness of media freedom issues and to promote the right of journalists to collect and disseminate information without risk to life or liberty. To

History of Right of Access to Information Access to Information: A Fundamental Right, A Universal Standard, 17 January 2006. [cited in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe during the debate on the new Convention on Access to Official Documents in October 2008]. · 1766 – Sweden adopts world’s first access to information law: The law establishes press freedom, including the freedom to print and disseminate materials about the government, courts, and parliament. The law, which forms part of Sweden’s constitution, recognises that press freedom is contingent upon access to information and states “to that end free access should