In the recently published book "The UN and Freedom of Expression and Information - Critical Perspectives", from Cambridge University Press, Access Info’s Executive Director Helen Darbishire maps the current state of the right of access to information and sets out some of the challenges currently facing the right. Darbishire notes that although the world’s first access to information law was adopted 250 years ago in Sweden 1766, it took the UN until 2011 to recognise this as a fundamental human right linked to the right to freedom of expression, and much remains to be done in defining this right and

In the year running up to 28 September 2012, members of the European public presented a total of 214 requests for documents with European institutions and bodies using the AsktheEU.org request platform. As of 23 September, almost 65% of the 214 requests made using AsktheEU.org resulted in full (37%) or partial (28%) disclosure of documents. In a further 19% of instances (40 requests) the institution responded that it did not hold the information requested, either because the document did not exist or because it was not in that institutions’ possession. Information was refused in only 13 cases (6% of requests).

This report consists of the findings of research into the right of access to information in Cyprus conducted in 2010 by Access Info Europe, KAB and IKME as part of the Access Info Cyprus Project. It was researched, written and edited by: Helen Darbishire and David Pardo of Access Info Europe; Faika Deniz Pasha, Derviş Musannif, Ilke Dagli and Didem Erel of the EU Cyprus Association (KAB); and Orestis Tringides and Alecos Tringides of the Institute for Social-Political Studies (IKME). Additional legal analysis was by David Goldberg, Oncel Polili and Panayiota Stavrou. Thanks to Andreas Pavlou of Access Info Europe

The book 'El lobby en España. ¿asignatura pendiente?' ('Lobbying in Spain, a pending issue?') – developed by the Foro Empresarial APRI and published by Algón Editores – was presented in the Political and Constitutional Studies Centre in Madrid. Access Info Europe collaborated in the book with a chapter about revolving doors. It is a collective work that analyses the role played by lobbies, the needs they represent, the public costs that their absence would carry, the existing alternatives for their regulation, and the effects caused by the lack of it; it is a serious attempt to demystify one of the

Access Info Europe and the Open Society Media Program launched Ten Recommendations for Transparency of Media Ownership in a presentation to the 47 governments of the Council of Europe meeting in Belgrade, Serbia. Presenting the recommendations, Mark Thompson of the Open Society Media Program called for the Council of Europe to take a lead in creating a regulatory framework for ensuring that citizens can know who really owns the media. "Public knowledge of owners' identities helps to ensure that abuses of media power can be assessed, publicised, openly debated and even prevented." Research released by Access Info Europe and the

This toolkit is designed for journalists working in any media – newspapers, radio, and television – as well as bloggers and other information professionals who need to get access to information held by public bodies for their stories. The toolkit is for journalists making requests in their own country or considering filing a request in another country. It is based on a comparative analysis of the access to information of the 40 countries of the Council of Europe region which have such laws. In many places in the text we have put references where national law or practice deviates from