Disclosure: the World Bank is a funder of Global Integrity. Freedom of information (FOI) laws are a good thing, but it’s difficult to tell how well they work (see this ongoing project that aims meerly to catalog the FOI evaluation work being done). But the World Bank’s Doing Business project is poised to make a…
Pakistan’s Minister of Information announces a phone hotline to encourage information sharing between government and journalists. While not a radical step, this a welcome warming sign in a country that banned the broadcast of information “against the armed forces and judiciary” under its previous government. Minister Sherry Rehman says those days are over. Daily Times:…
The Vanguard newspaper in Lagos highlights a discouraging trend of Nigerian lawmakers declaring greater personal assets than they currently posses in order to build in a cushion that accounts for corrupt gains while in office. When those asset disclosures are finally reviewed years later, the inflated numbers sadly match reality. The article mentions how the…
A new paper analyzes the performance of the African Peer Review Mechanism, as experienced in Kenya. From the NED email newsletter: In a recent position paper on the current political crisis in Kenya, Bronwen Manby, Senior Programme Advisor with AfriMap at the Open Society Institute, discusses what can be learned from both the successes and…
Global Integrity’s Sebastian Sanga writes from Tanzania with a review of last year’s electrical power crisis, and the political powers that let it happen. The report, in the words of a peer reviewer, “gives a vivid picture of the gravity of the corruption cankerworm in Tanzania.” Tanzania: The Influence Grid By Sebastian SangaImage: Dar Es…
Media independence takes a knock in South Africa, with an apparently retaliatory sacking. While publicly-supported broadcasters are often quite good (the BBC comes to mind), there is a built in risk of government interference, and here it is. RSF press release, via AllAfrica. Reporters sans Frontières (Paris) PRESS RELEASE7 May 2008Posted to the web 7…