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OGP in the News
Week of April 24, 2017

A series providing a round-up of media attention received by the Open Government Partnership throughout the world.


Media Overview 
This week’s OGP coverage included stories on the value of public information, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s not so transparent judicial appointments, OGP potential in Australia, e-government in Tunisia and more!  
Read Full Analysis
Top OGP Stories
Americas

Moving from an ‘open government’ to an ‘open State’ - El País, Latin America

In 2013, Domitila Rosario Piche managed to obtain a copy of the historic 1992 El Salvador Peace Accords from former president Alfredo Cristiani by appealing to the Institute for Access to Information (IAIP). Senior technician in Democratic Governance, Borja Díaz Rivillas, extrapolated a deeper message from Domitila’s pursuit of information: “[P]ublic documents are the property of citizens and should always be at your disposal.” The author noted that thanks to initiatives like OGP and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), recognition of public information as a tool for ensuring accountable governance and citizen-centric decision-making is growing both internationally and in Latin America where OGP membership is particularly strong. However, he also emphasized that transparency laws must be accompanied by trust in public institutions: “[I]n order to keep the integrity of transparency laws, it is necessary to establish a renewed relationship between the State and the citizens that is based on trust and reciprocity.”

Civil Society Petitions Judicial Appointments - El Economista, Mexico

Controversy over government transparency came to head in Mexico when President Enrique Peña Nieto put forth the names of 18 judges to join the Third Section of the Federal Court of Fiscal and Administrative Justice (TFJFA)—the judicial branch responsible for punishing acts of corruption. Made without any public consultation, several Mexican civil society organizations contested the decision, claiming it violates one of Mexico’s key OGP commitments that mandates substantive citizen participation in National Anti-Corruption System (ANS) processes.
 
Asia-Pacific

Turnbull Commits to OGP - Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

Australia’s open government horizons seem to be brightening. An opinion piece by three former justices of the Supreme Court of Victoria highlighted current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to OGP—a move that “offers a real prospect of restoring the integrity of our democracies.” Authors Tim Smith, Stephen Charles and David Harper welcome this transition away from precedents established under the former Abbott administration, which failed to deliver Australia’s first OGP National Action Plan (NAP) and cut funding to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The Turnbull government, in contrast, successfully drafted a 2016-2018 NAP in partnership with civil society and has promised to restore FOI statutory functions to the Information Office.
 
Europe

270 Opengov Proposals - Springer für Professionals, Germany

Following several weeks of OGP workshops, the German government has a whopping 270 commitment proposals from which to develop its first ever OGP action plan. The next step? Members of both government and civil society will review the proposals and submit a draft action plan before OGP’s Steering Committee in June 2017.
 
Africa

EGOV Tunisia 2017 - La Presse News Tunisie, Tunisia

Tunisia’s Association of Management Sciences (TMSS) is to host the 2017 E-Gov Tunisia conference from April 28-30. With a focus on governance in “smart cities” using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), topics addressed will include robotics, the Internet of things, and OGP. The TMSS explained how governments must adapt to and capitalize on these new and innovative technological developments: "The concept of ‘smart’ government is becoming essential. Smart government can be viewed as the use of a number of operational processes created with advanced technology to process information in a transparent fashion so as to provide high-quality services to citizens. Smart government therefore establishes a more efficient, transparent and accountable government."
Last but not least, OGP’s newest Government Point of Contact Manual is out and better than ever. How is it different from the previous iterations you ask? You’ll just have to read on to find out!
Of course, we can’t catch everything in our news round-ups, so if you see we’ve missed something or think a particular story ought to be featured, please send it to jacqueline.mcgraw@opengovpartnership.org.
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