The Centre for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) is calling on the global community to join a panel discussion on the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law. The theme for the discussion is: ‘Breathing Life into Freedom of Information Laws: The Challenges of Implementation in the Democratizing World’ and will hold on Thursday, September 12, 2013 at 1025 F Street, N.W., Suite 800 Washington, DC 20004, USA between 12pm and 2pm.
The discussion will focus on how local and national governments and the media development community can make FOI laws more effective and thus improve the quality of democratic governance worldwide.
According to the organisers, they said: “Over the last 20 years, a global right-to-information movement has created a new norm for any government that claims to be democratic. This has included passage of more than 90 freedoms of information laws throughout the world, many of which are recently enacted and exemplary on paper. However, due to a lack of political will and inconsistent implementation, many of these laws have been ineffective.”
The discussion will be streamed live on their websites for more participation from the global audience who are unable to join them. They have also created a Twitter hash tag #cimaevents for online audience.
Speakers invited to be in the panel are Robert Freeman, Executive Director of the New York State Committee on Open Government; Craig LaMay, Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism; Aylair Livingstone, Jamaican attorney-at-law; Richard N. Winfield, former General Counsel for the Associated Press and David E. Lowe, Vice President for Government Relations and Public Affairs at the National Endowment for Democracy.
