Welcome to Freedom of Information International

My name is Johan Lidberg and I am a lecturer and researcher in journalism at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia and have worked in journalism since 1989. My main research area is Freedom of Information, FOI.

After World War II the international community concluded that one of the explanations to the 'war-that-wasn't-supposed-to-happen' was a culture of secrecy in governance. This secrecy was widespread both within countries and between nations and allowed elected and non-elected political leaders to, literarily, get away with murder. In the United Nations some members of the international community suggested that a new era of increased transparency and political accountability was needed.

This saw the rise of FOI legislations in its modern incarnation. The core thought behind FOI is that any member of the public (irrespective of nationality) should be able to request and get copies of any documents held by government agencies - at least that's the aim. Unfortunately the practice of FOI does not always deliver on its promises.

I have researched FOI in several countries since 2001and have devised an assessment tool, the International FOI Index, that measures how well a particular FOI system functions in practice. You could say that the index gives an indication of the 'health of the system' based how well the system delivers independent access to quality, un-spun, government-held information.

On this site you will find some of my publications, the presentation of the main findings in the FOI Index pilot study, the FOI International Blog and a summary of where the International FOI Index project will go next.