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Mexico and Latin America
Federal Institute for Access to Public Information in Mexico and the Culture of Transparency
With the support of the Hewlett Foundation, CGCS prepared a report on the IFAI and Mexico's Culture of Transparency. The final report was released on February 20, 2006.
Starting during the summer of 2007, CGCS has been working on a short follow-up report reviewing developments in the culture of transparency, within the context of the original report's recommendations. This second report was based in part on a series of focus groups we conducted in June 2007. The second report is now available as of January 18, 2008.
View the January 2008 Report.
Read the original 2006 Report:
In June 2002, the Mexican Government passed a freedom of information law, which established a new federal agency, the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information(IFAI). The agency was tasked with administering the freedom of information law at the Federal level and coordinating information requests from the broader public and information resources across the government bureaucracy. The IFAI has jurisdiction to review decisions made under the Law on Transparency by the Public Federal Administration, including the President and the Attorney General and it follows the "principles of openness for information of the government" and operates as a "decentralized" part of the Federal Administration.
IFAI is an extraordinary institution that, in its infancy, is developing strong and pioneering mechanisms to enhance transparency of democratic processes in Mexico. It can do so for structural reasons that are absent in many other legal regimes, and also because of mechanisms of support from civil society, from stakeholders, and, to some extent, from international funders.
The final report examined these factors, making recommendations to buttress the positive influences of IFAI and render it more likely that IFAI can extend and deepen its many functions with respect to government and government services. Thus the goals of the study were to:
- explore the sustainability of autonomy and independence of IFAI, with a view that it serves as a model institution for other countries, but also to offer some strategies to guarantee its independence;
- help IFAI identify its gaps and weaknesses and trigger public debate on any needed changes;
- assess IFAI's relationship with other institutions and society; and
- evaluate IFAI's internal effectiveness.
Workshop on Mexico's Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI)
As part of the project, CGCS hosted a two-day gathering on 3-4 June 2005 that brought together a select group of Mexican and international experts on freedom of information issues, NGO/civil society representatives, lawyers, and academics to discuss the Annenberg IFAI Report. The discussions were highly useful and instructive for the report team and the recommendations which came out of the meeting will be incorporated into the final report.
For more information contact:
- Bethany Davis Noll (Deputy Director of the Project and Co-Author): mailto:bethany@pudg.org
- Sylvie Beauvais, (Project Coordinator, CGCS): sbeauvais@asc.upenn.edu
Project Team
Project Leader
Professor Monroe E. Price is Visiting Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication. He is the Joseph and Sadie Danciger Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, of which he was the dean from 1982-1991. He was Professor of Law at UCLA until 1982. Professor Price currently serves as the director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media and Society and is the founder and editor of the Communications Law in Transition Newsletter. He was member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton in 2001 - 2002 and was a Communications Fellow at the John & Mary R. Markle Foundation from 1996 to 1998. He was a senior fellow of the Media Studies Center of the Freedom Forum in New York City in 1998.
Report Authors/Researchers:
Benjamin Fernandez Bogadois a lawyer and journalist. He is President of the Fundacion Libre and General Director of Radio Libre in Paraguay. He has worked with UNDP on governance issues since 2000 and has written several books about access to information. He is the Rector of the Universidad Americana in Paraguay and has done a lot of work on how freedom of information interacts with democratization. He was a draftee of the 1992 Paraguayan Constitution. He studied at Harvard, as a Nieman Fellow, at University of Minnesota, as a Fulbright Fellow, and Syracuse University, as a Humphrey Fellow.
David Sobel, at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, has litigated numerous cases under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the disclosure of government documents on privacy policy, including electronic surveillance and encryption controls. His current cases seek disclosure of information concerning the USA Patriot Act, the Total Information Awareness program and the privacy impact of aviation security measures and other homeland security initiatives. He served as co-counsel in the challenge to government secrecy concerning post-September 11 detentions and participated in the submission of a civil liberties amicus brief in the first-ever proceeding of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. Mr. Sobel has a longstanding interest in civil liberties and information policy issues and has written and lectured on these issues frequently since 1981. He was formerly counsel to the non-profit National Security Archive, and his clients have included Coretta Scott King, the Nation magazine and ABC News.
TCC Group Researchers
TCC Groupis a consulting firm that develops strategies and programs that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations, philanthropies and corporate citizenship programs to achieve social impact.
Shelly Kessler,Vice President. Since joining TCC, Shelly has had a major role in developing TCC's international practice. She has been one of the leads on our work on long-range financing for the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) as well as participating in the strategic marketing workshops funded by the Ford Foundation. Kessler has also led a strategic planning assignment for the Merck Foundation, and a review of one of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation's flagship philanthropic projects. She has twenty years experience in international development, non-profit management, and consulting. Prior to joining the firm, Kessler spent five and a half years as Deputy Executive Director of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN, Inc.), an international non-profit organization working with medical schools in 24 countries.
Jared Raynor,is a Consultant at TCC Group, recently joined the firm after working in a number of international organizations. He worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Azerbaijan, working with local communities and organizations affected by conflict. In this capacity he worked on strategic planning for the country office of IRC and worked to enhance organizational efficiency for IRC programs, local NGOs and partner organizations. Raynor has also worked for the United Nations in the NGO Section of the Department of Public Information, assisting with the development and implementation of several major conferences for NGOs, working on general outreach to NGOs and coordinating media outreach efforts.
Ana Ramos-Hernandezis an Associate Consultant at TCC Group. She received her law degree from the University of Los Andes, in Bogot�, Colombia. Shortly after graduation, she was appointed coordinator of the project Visible Candidates � Visible Congress, an organization dedicated to monitoring legislative activity and the performance of Colombian Congress, and to empowering citizens by disseminating accurate, complete and impartial information on Colombian legislators. During this time, she not only performed the administrative functions inherent to running an organization but also conducted quantitative and qualitative analysis conducive to reports on legislative performance. Ramos has extensive experience in surveying, data collection, and quantitative and qualitative analysis, possesses valuable computer skills and is fluent in both English and Spanish. Ramos graduated from her Master's program in May 2004 with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and was awarded the Fels Institute of Government Excellence in Performance Measurement Award for her work with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services.
Deputy Director of the Project and Co-Author
Bethany Davis Noll, consultant for the project, worked on numerous projects with Professor Monroe Price at the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at Oxford, including a comparative survey of media reform in democratizing countries, a study on minority language broadcasting and legislation in OSCE states, a study on media reform in Ukraine sponsored by USAID, and a conference on international media assistance and its role in promoting democracy with the World Bank and USAID. She graduated from Stanford Law School in 2005.
Project Coordinator
Susan Abbott, is Sr. Research Coordinator at the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School of Communications.She works with Professor Monroe E. Price on increasing international and comparative research and activities. Susan has previously worked as a consultant for Central European University in Budapest, where she helped establish the CEU Center for Media and Communications Studies and at Stanhope Centre in London on various projects including the international media lawyers association. Prior to this she was a program officer in the Media Development Division at the International Research & Exchanges Board, in Washington, DC, on the USAID-funded Serbia Professional Media Program.
Board of Advisors
David Goldbergtaught law at the School of Law, University of Glasgow from 1971-2000. Now, he directs deeJgee Research/Consultancy and is a Guest Lecturer for Glasgow Caledonian University's communications law course. He founded the Journal of Media Law and Practice in 1979 (later, Tolley's Communications Law) and initiated the teaching of communications law and policy at Glasgow in 1983 at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Since 1984, he has (as Co-convener of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland) campaigned for freedom of information in Scotland as well as internationally. He is a UK media law information provider to the Council of Europe's Audiovisual Observatory. In 2002, he was a Member of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Free Expression Panel (under the auspices of the Human Rights Policy Unit) he is a Research Fellow and Member of the Advisory Council of The Commonwealth Centre for Electronic Governance.
Luis Botello, Director, Latin American Programs, ICFJ, is responsible for the identification, implementation and development of all ICFJ projects for Latin America and the Caribbean. Conducts a variety of training programs and conferences. Botello was formerly director of ICFJ's web-based service, the International Journalist's Network (IJNet), which tracks media developments around the world. Also previously served as morning newscast producer, host and television reporter for Televisora Nacional in Panama, where he covered assignments in Colombia, the United States and Europe. He is a member of the board of directors of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin and the Latin American Journalism Center (CELAP) in Panama City, Panama. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 1988 and a fellowship to Louisiana State University's Manship School of Mass Communication in 1997. B.A., Journalism and Master's in Mass Communications, Louisiana State University.
Eduardo Bertoni, is Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States.
Kate Doyleis a Senior Analyst of U.S. policy in Latin America, currently directs the Mexico Project at the National Security Archive, which aims to obtain documents on U.S.-Mexican relations. She edited two of the Archive's collections of declassified records - Death Squads, Guerrilla War, Covert Operations, and Genocide: Guatemala and the United States, 1954-1999 and El Salvador: War, Peace and Human Rights, 1980-1994- and numerous Electronic Briefing Books on Guatemala and Mexico for the Archive's Web site. Since 1992, Doyle has worked with Latin American human rights organizations and truth commissions - in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras - to obtain the declassification of U.S. government archives in support of their investigations. Doyle also works with citizens groups throughout the region on their campaigns for government transparency, accountability and freedom of information, and has written about the right to information in Latin America and the United States. In 2002, Doyle was awarded the Iberoamerican University' vs annual "Right to Information Prize" in Mexico.
Special Advisors
Issa Luna Pla works for Libertad de Informacion(LIMAC). LIMAC is a non-partisan, secular and non-profit civil society organization that promotes the individual's right to information and especially to public information in the framework of a democratic state based on the rule of law.
Dra. Patricia Galeana, LIMAC Advisor. Historian at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Former General Director of the Historic and Diplomatic Archives at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the General Archives of the Nation and Councilor of the International Council on Archives. Author and coauthor of 20 books, she has coordinated more than 54 publications in history, international relations and gender.
Last updated: January 22, 2008
