The Finnish Institute, London and the Embassy of Finland on May 30, 2013 will hold a discussion on “Government Transparency and its Unintended Consequences” at the residence of the Ambassador of Finland, Mr. Pekka Huhtaniemi.
Dr. Tero Erkkilä, an assistant Professor in the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki, will open the discussions with a presentation based on his new book “Government Transparency: Impacts and Unintended Consequences”. This will be followed by a comment from Dr. Ben Worthy, lecturer in Politics at the Birkbeck University.
There will also be panel discussions with plenty of time for questions from the floor. Mr. Christopher Cook from the Financial Times and Mr. Paul Gibbons (Information Compliance Manager at SOAS & creator of the FOI Man blog) will be on the panel.
The event aims at identifying why and how transparency has become such a topical concept and how it has reacted with the rapid digital development. The main questions that will be asked are; what are the impacts of freedom of information and digital transparency? What are the possible unintended consequences of transparency especially in performance management? What is the state of government, and what is the future of government transparency in an increasingly digital society? How should the freedom of information law be amended in order to fully satisfy citizens’ right to information?
While the event is open to the public, it is targeted at a high-level audience consisting of policy-makers, journalists, civil servants, academics and public policy enthusiasts.
Intending participants are asked to do an RSVP to this email: tiina.heinila@formin.fi.
Closing date for inquiries is May 23, 2013.
