1 p.m. – Thursday 29 October

Press conference Room of the Chamber of Deputies (Via della Missione 4, Rome)

Speakers:
Anna Ascani (MP of the Democratic Party and promoter of the  FOIA Law Proposal)
Ernesto Belisario (Foia4Italy)
introduced by
Guido Romeo (Foia4Italy)

With the approval of the Public Administrative Reform las August, the Italian Government received from the Parliament the mandate to write within 6 months a legislative decree that regulates the access to documents, information and data held by public bodies. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is an essential provision that most of longer-established democracies and many developing countries already have and it could guarantee a more transparent government, stronger actions against corruption and a more competitive economy.

The Italian Government has approximately 120 days to fulfill its mandate. However no hint was given on how the Italian Freedom of Information Act will be. Access to  information is a right that more and more citizens are claiminig: our online petition which has more that 41.000 signers is a clear proof of this.

At the moment, the only indications on the future of Right To Information in Italy are the ones included in the law proposal 3042 promoted by the MP Anna Ascani.

FOIA4Italy asked three of the main experts in the world on right to access to write a review of this proposal. The three reviews were made by:

• Toby Mendel: Chair of FOIAnet, the international network of RTI advocates, and Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy;
• Helen Darbishire: Executive Director of Access Info Europe;
• Ben Worthy: Politics Scholar at the University of London, expert in open data and trasparency.

Tomorrow (1 p.m.) Ernesto Belisario, lawyer and FOIA4Italy promoter, will present the three international review to Anna Ascani at the Press Conference Room of the Chamber of Deputies.

According to the RTI Rating, Italy has right now one of the ten worst law on access in the world: the three reviews will evaluate if the new law proposal is more effective and in line with the international standards and a preliminary estimate of the new RTI Rating will be given.

The press conference will be streamed at
http://webtv.camera.it/conferenze_stampa

For further information:
info@foia4italy.it
Guido Romeo: 349 41 54 010
Claudio Cesarano: 338 23 34 933