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Madrid, 17 December 2014 - Access Info Europe today presented a complaint to the Spanish Ombudsman raising concerns about obstacles to the right to request information under the Spain’s transparency law that entered into force on 10 December 2014. There are two elements to the complaint: First, that requesters may only send information requests via the Transparency Portal by complicated and time-consuming process, which resulted in no member of Access Info Europe has yet having completed the bureaucratic steps necessary to be able to submit a request. Secondly, requesters are required to use official and verified identification in order to

New transparency law, criticised as failing to meet international standards, took effect yesterday Vienna, 11 December 2014 – Spanish civil society must speak out to counter diverse challenges to freedom of expression, the International Press Institute (IPI) said today following a four-day international mission to Madrid and Barcelona. Participants in the mission concluded that a lack of coordinated monitoring and advocacy has hindered efforts to enhance the free flow of information necessary for the strongest possible functioning of Spanish democracy, nearly 40 years after its advent. Led by IPI, the visit – the first of its kind to Spain –

Madrid, 10 December 2014 – The Spanish access to information law entered into force at the central government level on 10 December 2014, but it’s proving near impossible for the public to make requests. Rather than a cause for celebration, it’s been a bit of an anti-climax for the team that founded Access Info Europe, which is headquartered in Spain in part out of the goal of promoting a transparency law in the only country with over a million inhabitants in the European Union and wider European region not to have one. The biggest disappointment for the Access Info Europe

Madrid, 9 December 2014 -- The Spanish access to information law enters into force at the national level on Wednesday 10 December 2014, but with just one week to go to until citizens can start presenting requests, there is little sign of preparation, with the transparency portal not having been launched and the oversight body, the Transparency Council, not having been formed. In a meeting with Secretary of State for Communication, Carmen Martinez Castro, on Thursday 4 December 2014, an international delegation of freedom of expression organisations was told that the transparency law is a priority for the current Spanish