[Okfn-irl] Fwd: Proposed Open Letter to Minister Howlin to Make 'Abolishing FOI Fees' a commitment of the OGP Action Plan

[Denis Parfenov]

*Apologies for cross-posting*

Dear OKF Global Community,

OKF Ireland is calling and we need your support.

I would like to call on your help by lending your voice to an Open
Letter<https://docs.google.com/document/d/11KyCmA6fgXvDdqeYUrLorFuXxUxV9jUg5Y9mxU8eqk8/edit>
that
the Irish OGP civil society group would like to send to the Irish Minister
of Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), who look after both
Freedom of Information and the Irish process of becoming a member of the
Open Government Partnership.

Alongside local FOI experts who helped drafting the letter, nationally
engaged and international organisations we would like to request the
Government to commit to abolishing upfront FOI fees.

Our Government reacts far better to international than to national pressure
and we would like to ask whether you will consider to help us again by
becoming a signatory to the Open
Letter<https://docs.google.com/document/d/11KyCmA6fgXvDdqeYUrLorFuXxUxV9jUg5Y9mxU8eqk8/edit#>
.


We would appreciate if you can help to share this letter with your networks.

Many thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Denis

-- 

Denis Parfenov | OKF Ambassador for Ireland | m: +353863850044 |
@prfnv<https://twitter.com/prfnv>
[.org <http://prfnv.org/>] | @OKFirl <https://twitter.com/OKFirl>
[.org<http://okfirl.org>
]
The Open Knowledge Foundation Empowering through Open Knowledge
http://okfn.org/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Flora Fleischer <fleischer.flora at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 10:31 PM
Subject: Proposed Open Letter to Minister Howlin to Make 'Abolishing FOI
Fees' a commitment of the OGP Action Plan
To: OGP irl <ogpirl at dgroups.org>, OGP Civil Society group <ogp at dgroups.org>,
"open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com" <
open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com>, "
open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com" <open-data-ireland at googlegroups.com>


Hi everyone,

please find a proposed open letter to Minister Howlin asking to abolish FOI
fees and if needed to make this a commitment of the 1st Irish OGP Action
Plan that the Government is currently drafting.

The rationale for the letter is to indicate that the OGP civil society
forum is not prepared to stand by an Action Plan that wants to believe it
improves government transparency & accountability while going along with
charging upfront and introducing additional fees for a basic human right,
that is freedom of information.

Minister Howlin will present a proposal for an amended FOI Bill soon and we
would like to send the letter to influence that proposal or at least make
our voice heard rather than just protesting afterwards.

Many thanks to Gavin Sheridan, Martin Wallace, Fred Logue, and Steve White
who have helped drafting the letter!

In a next step we will consult with and collate signatures from as many
relevant national and international organisations and individuals as
possible so please add your signature and affiliation if you are ok with it.

If you have any suggestions for changing wording or adding to the letter,
please let me know and I will make necessary amendments.


The Letter<https://docs.google.com/document/d/11KyCmA6fgXvDdqeYUrLorFuXxUxV9jUg5Y9mxU8eqk8/edit>


Best,


Flora Fleischer

Co-Founder, OKF Ireland

m: +353851587423 I  @daydreamer2105 <https://twitter.com/Daydreamer2105> |
irl.okfn.org

Open data - the 21st century public library irl.okfn.org




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