Information Policy

Euromaidan reverberates online

As a result of the political events in Ukraine, an increase in the online traffic was noted on Facebook and Twitter, news services and non-public TV stations. Local players, i.e. VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and public televisions stations websites were lagging behind – Gemius analysis shows.

 

As recently as in November 2013, Ukraine was one of the countries researched by Gemius where Facebook did not enjoy much popularity. At that time, Facebook.com was visited by 3 in 10 internet users (28.5 per cent). In this respect, Ukraine surpassed only Belarus, where this share amounted to 20 per cent (19 per cent). The night of 21 November 2013 saw the onset of a protest at the Kiev Independence Square that soon grew into Euromaidan, a wave of demonstrations that shook almost all of Ukraine, and the social media. How did the political unrest influence online traffic?

What is (and what is not) open government

Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction it opposes reason of state and other considerations, which have tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy. The origins of open government arguments can be dated to the time of the European Enlightenment.

Open Government Partnership or OGP is an international organization promoting multilateral initiative and seeking strong commitments from participating government institutions to promote transparency, increase civic participation, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to make government more open, effective, and accountable.

The first step towards full OGP participation is meeting the OGP eligibility criteria. In order to be eligible to participate in OGP, governments must demonstrate a minimum level of commitment to open government principles in four key areas (Fiscal Transparency, Access to Information, Income and Asset Disclosures, and Citizen Engagement).

Link: http://prezi.com/okqs-l6tyvtk/what-is-and-what-is-not-open-government/

Launch of new global campaign to stop secret government contracting

Madrid, Thursday 27 February 2014 - Today sees the launch of a new global campaign, Stop Secret Contracts, calling on world leaders to end secrecy in public contracting. The campaign is coordinated by the Open Knowledge Foundation, and signed by Access Info Europe along with  signatories including Global Witness, Integrity Action, the International Budget Partnership, the Sunlight Foundation and Transparency International.

Commission welcomes finalisation of digital Connecting Europe Facility; European Parliament endorsement means investment in Europe's digital future

 

Today the European Parliament approved a €1 billion investment package to support pan-European digital projects and high-speed broadband networks. Members of the European Parliament voted in their Plenary session to support the digital part of the Connecting Europe Facility proposed by the Commission in 2011 to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda said. "Digital infrastructure matters for the whole economy. So today’s vote is not just about telecoms and internet, it’s about giving every sector what they need to compete or deliver public services.”

“Coming on top of political agreement on our e-Identification regulation and proposals to reduce the cost of broadband rollout, this is a great week for Europe’s Digital Agenda.”

“I want to thank Mr Tošenovský and the shadow rapporteurs for their strong cooperation here. These investments will help transform Europe.”

“These investments will help transform everything from movie theatres to operating theatres; from our transport to our tourism industry”

“Giving priority to “building-block” services that are reusable across all sectors, such as eID, eSignature, eInvoicing and Automated Translation, CEF Digital will gradually build up a digital eco-system in support of a true digital single market without digital barriers.”

“We need to combine investments like the ones voted on today with new rules so that we build a truly connected continent. When we have seamless networks and services that everyone can use, that’s when we’ll know that Europe is ready to compete for decades to come in the global economy.”

"I look to more constructive cooperation with this Parliament to achieve those reforms.”

That is truly a visionary target that deserves support from all of us.

Background

In October 2011, the proposed a Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)as part of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF) to support transport, energy and digital infrastructure projects (IP/11/1200).This included a budget of €9.2bn for CEF digital of which €7 billion would support investment in high-speed broadband (leveraging between €50 and 100 billion of public and private investment) and the remaining amount to support public interest digital service infrastructure (MEMO/11/709).

At the February 2013 European Council, funding available for CEF digital under MFF was reduced to €1 billion and the Commission had to fundamentally reorient its plans for the scheme.

Under the proposal endorsed by the European Parliament today, the majority of funding will support digital services such as infrastructures, pan-European platforms and seamless cross-border public services such as eProcurement, eHealth, or Open Data. 15% of the budget has been earmarked to support broadband, projects of which at least one third shall aim at speeds of 100 Mb per second or above.

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-14-33_en.htm

YanukovychLeaks: How Ukraine Journalists Are Making History

In the hours after Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, reports started surfacing that there were documents floating in the reservoir on his palatial 350-acre estate outside the capital. The estate is well known to the media as an off-limits location; journalists, in fact, had never entered more than 300 yards past the front gate, and even at the height of Yanukovych's openness and good relations, journalists had only been allowed to the front door to receive cakes on journalism day.

Source: http://gijn.org/2014/02/25/yanukovychleaks-org-how-ukraine-journalists-are-making-history/