The 10th Annual International Conference of Information Commissioners entitled Trust, Transparency and Progressive Information Rights (https://icic2017open.org/) was held 20-21 September 2017 in Manchester, the United Kingdom. The conference, which has been regularly held since 2003 when Berlin hosted information commissioners and other institutions whose jurisdiction the right to access information falls under (ombudsmen, personal information and access to information agencies), was held in Manchester for the second time (the first time it was held in 2005) and was jointly hosted by the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham and acting Scottish Information Commissioner Margaret Keyse. The conference brought together information commissioners and delegates from 30 countries. Also participating were representatives from the academic community, the media, associations as well as from public administrations.
The most significant outcome of the conference was the adoption of the Resolution on the Right of Access to Information and Accountability of Public Services which seeks to emphasize the importance of transparency in organizations’ and individuals in the private sector’s provision of service through various external contracting systems, outsourcing, concessions, public-private partnerships and the like. The resolution invokes the Open Contracting Partnership’s open contract standards which seek to establish the monitoring and transparency of contracts and their implementation.
Attachment: Resolution in English.
The central part of the conference was held on 20 September when a number of key themes related to the exercise of the right of access to information were examined during the day-long program. An introductory lecture entitled “In Defence of Open Society” was held by Dr. Alasdair Roberts (University of Massachusetts, School of Public Policy) which emphasized the importance of transparency and access to information for the functioning of democracy and for social and economic progress. The second introductory lecture was held by Emily O’Riley, European Ombudsman (https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/hr/home.faces) and Ireland’s first Information Commissioner, and it underlined the seismic impact that technological changes have had on informing citizens and the possibility of controlling the government. In the EU, which is accused of having a lack of democracy, transparency particularly allows for citizens to trust institutions once again. A number of key institution representatives and users of the right of access to information, who presented their experiences and projects that contributed significantly to transparency, participated in some sessions moderated by commissioners and journalists, including Australian Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim, Canadian Commissioner Suzanne Legaut, Irish Commissioner and Ombudsman Peter Tynda, India’s Commissioner Radhe Krishna Mathura, Mexican Commissioner Oscar Mauricio Guerrero Ford and others, for example, Melanie Ann Pustay, Director of the Office of Information Policy of the United States Department of Justice, as well as representatives of the most important global and European associations in the area of transparency such as Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe, Maurice Frankel, Director of the British Campaign for Freedom of Information, Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, Arne Semsrott from the German Frag den Staat, Alex Kashumov from the Bulgarian Access to Information Program and media representatives who have been particularly prominent in this area, such as Marc Ellison from the BBC and Will Moy from the Full Fact association, a fact-checking service.
The first day’s conclusions can be summed up in the following statements:
- Strong, comprehensive and thorough changes in our understanding of what information is available to citizens have taken place over the last 20 years – the amount of information in the public domain has increased, technological changes have considerably increased the availability of information; document management in public authorities, along with new technologies, are essential to exercising the right of access to information
- Open data, as well as other proactively published information, are a significant resource for journalists, associations and academia, but unfortunately have not been sufficiently exploited
- Information itself is not always sufficient; rather, in order to avoid any misunderstandings and false interpretations and hence a potential loss of confidence in institutions, it is necessary to give additional explanations (public authorities), and to interpret and contextualize information (media, associations)
- There is no ultimate or unique model for protecting the right of access to information (commissioner, ombudsman, agency, etc.), rather the choice depends on context, political and legal culture, institution resources, in terms of financial resources for the activities and the number of people employed and particularly on the very commissioner who with his or her vision and dedication determines the quality of the institution in the given environment
- Governments and other public authorities can either view the commissioner as a partner in building a better society or as a bother, depending on their own orientation and dedication to public interest
On the second day of the conference, 21 September, a day-long closed part was held which was attended by information commissioners who reflected on specific issues that arise in their everyday work and on the challenges that lay ahead of them, both in organizational-financial and political terms as well as in terms of the key issues of transparency that will be relevant in the upcoming period. The need for inclusion in the Partnership for Open Government, nationally and globally, as well as the establishment of a help system (publications, workshops) for the exchange of experiences that would serve to newly appointed commissioners was particularly emphasized.
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