Date: 17/11/2020 Access Info's director Helen Darbishire participated in this videoconference meeting, where she called on all member states of the Council of Europe (47) to sign and ratify the Coe's Convention on Access to Official Documents – the Tromsø Convention – with a particular call on France, Germany, Italy and the UK to follow Spain in ensuring that Europe’s largest countries are party to the Convention. Speaking to the Information Policy group of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, she also called for rapid creation of the Group of Specialists that will monitor the implementation of the Convention after

Date: 21/10/2020 The right to freedom of information is an integral part of the freedom of expression, which constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and is one of the basic conditions for its progress and development. OSCE participating States have explicitly stressed that the right to freedom of expression includes the freedom to hold opinions, and to receive and impart information as well as ideas without interference by public authorities, and regardless of frontiers. While almost all OSCE participating States have adopted access to information / freedom of information laws, there are still problems in practical enforcement

Date: 16/10/2020 Access Info Europe's director, Helen Darbishire, spoke before the Catalan Parliament on the Proposed Law for the Protection of Whistleblowers. Access Info has carried out different actions calling for a state project to protect whistleblowers, as well as for a participatory legislative process to transpose the European Directive 2019/1937 on this matter. "Protecting whistleblowers is about preventing and fighting corruption, defending the environment and respecting human rights," said Darbishire.

Date: 24/09/2020 How do freedom-of-information request websites function? Does it make sense for journalists to use them, and if yes, in which situations? What other resources can journalists find via such websites? For the EU, Germany and several other countries, websites are available to help you file document requests. In Norway, several media have joined forces to consider a shared document request portal. Dataharvest – The European Investigative Journalism Conference is a meeting point where networks are established and nurtured, data and documents shared, cross-border projects conceived and teams established. The conference days are all about learning, inspiration and getting

Date: 11/09/2020 Workshop for the discussion of the commitments for the IV Open Government Plan proposed by the Spanish regional governments and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, coordinated by the Directorate General of Public Governance (DGGP), belonging to the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Function. This online meeting was attended by a total of 43 participants representing public administrations, civil society and the Open Government Partnership (OGP), including Access Info Europe as an observer. In total, 53 open government proposals were made. For more information, download and read the note issued by the ministry (in Spanish)

Date: 02/09/2020 Access Info and other specialists explain how to request information from public bodies and how to appeal in cases of total or partial rejection or refusal of the request, both to the Spanish Transparency Council and before the courts. Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europ, presented this workshop which also featured the following speakers: Miguel Ángel Blanes, Lawyer. PhD in Law. Public Official. Expert on transparency, access to public information and open governmento; Joaquín Meseguer, Director General for Transparency and Good Governance. Regional Government of Castilla y León; Jesús Escudero, data journalist. Member of the International

Date: 01/09/2020 On 1 September 2020, the yearly ‘NGO briefing’ took place on the margins of the 11th reconvened session of the UNCAC Implementation Review Group meeting (IRG) at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. It had been postponed from its original date in June due to the evolving COVID-19 situation and was conducted in a hybrid format with around 20 in-person and roughly 70 remote participants from 40 CSOs and 15 States Parties. The briefing, organized by the Secretariat of the UNCAC Conference of the States Parties (CoSP) in collaboration with the UNCAC Coalition, is