[kictanet] Day 3: What Policies should inform the FOI?
Alex Gakuru
alex.gakuru at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 14 20:06:13 EAT 2007
I just received this mail from another mailing list, which I consider quite relevant to this thread.
----forwarded message----
[farber]
From: Paul Levy <plevy at citizen.org>
Date: February 13, 2007 9:37:27 PM EST
I want to call your attention to a case just filed by my colleague
Jennifer Soble on behalf of an anonymous Internet speaker whose
identity was revealed by his ISP, nj.com, without giving the speaker
any notice or opportunity to oppose disclosure. Even though New
Jersey is the state the pioneered the protection of anonymous
Internet speakers by the adoption of the "Dendrite" standard
requiring notice and proof of wrongdoing before a subpoena can be
enforced (established in 2001 by Dendrite International v Doe), and
even though nj.com is run by a consortium of New Jersey newspapers
that ought to appreciate the need to protect anonymous sources,
nj.com released its customer's identity without making any effort to
determine whether there might be a basis for opposing the subpoena
and without any notice to the anonymous speaker so that he could move
to quash the subpoena in the manner for which Dendrite provides. The
result was that the speaker (who criticized local firefighters on a
community blog run by nj.com) was identified publicly on the blog,
ridiculed, and run out of town. The lawsuit claims that nj.com's
release of identifying information without any notice was a violation
of the ISP's privacy policy as well as being a tort under New Jersey
law.
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation
>>>Robert Yule 02/13/07 2:55 PM >>>
PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: Contact: Jennifer Soble (248)
568-7660 Feb. 13, 2007
Robert Yule (202) 588-7703
Public Citizen Represents Former New Jersey Town Council Member in
Suit Against Internet News Site
NJ.com Breached Contract by Revealing Identity of Anonymous Poster,
Suit Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. - An online news site unlawfully revealed the
identity of a former New Jersey town official who had posted
anonymous comments on its message board, according to a lawsuit filed
today by Public Citizen on behalf of the official. When his identity
was made known, he was publicly humiliated and forced to resign.
Michael Gallucci, a former town councilman for Teaneck, N.J., posted
messages anonymously on a Teaneck area message board on NJ.com, a
news site and Internet service provider (ISP) owned by New Jersey On- Line, LLC.
The ISP provides a forum dedicated to many towns within
the state where visitors to the Web site can anonymously post
comments related to the locality.
From Dec. 16, 2005, to Dec. 21, 2005, Galluci posted on the site
criticisms of William J. Brennan, a firefighter who had been employed
with the Teaneck Fire Department. Brennan was a regular poster on
NJ.com's Teaneck message board, where he lodged frequent complaints
against the Teaneck Council under the name "WJBrennan." Prior to Dec.
16, Brennan had also been a party to approximately 10 lawsuits
involving the township of Teaneck, as well as the Teaneck Council
members.
The ISP unlawfully released Galluci's identity publicly on the
message board after it received a subpoena from Brennan's lawyer. New
Jersey law requires that anonymous Internet users first be given
notice before subpoenas seeking their identity can be enforced, so
that the speaker can challenge the validity of the subpoena and
protect his identity.
The release of his name on the message board led to overwhelming
criticism of Galluci, his forced resignation from the Township
Council, and public humiliation as the story was picked up by local
and major media outlets. Galluci, who grew up in Teaneck and whose
social network, including his family and friends, was located in the
township, felt forced leave Teaneck. He quickly sold his home and
relocated to another city.
"When a newspaper is asked or even subpoenaed to identify a source of
one of its news stories, any paper worth its salt would fight the
subpoena before revealing that information," said Jennifer Soble, a
lawyer for Public Citizen who is litigating the case. "When a
newspaper invites citizens to comment on its Web site, it owes those
citizens the same protections against unreasonable intrusions into
their privacy."
To view the lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, visit
http://www.citizen.org/documents/galluccicomplaint.pdf.
Public Citizen has a record of defending the First Amendment rights
of Internet users. To learn more, visit http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/IntFreeSpch/
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy
organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please
see http://www.citizen.org.
---
/Alex
Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni at gmail.com> wrote: Hi Kihanya,
Want to draw a poniter to a related matter as is being dealt in a different country.
Please see the link below.
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1242852,00.html?track=NL-102&ad=578130HOUSE&asrc=EM_NLN_994760&uid=5800974
Walu had mentioned something related: the protection of consumer data by private companies too. It is important that this is captured.
Sorry, cannot find the actual mail on the thread but sure he can relate it.
Muthoni
On 2/14/07, John Walubengo <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote: Thanx Kihanya for your efforts. Indeed this is a fairly
un-convential topic in that it has no obvious or immediate
financial connotations - hence the slower responses...
But back to my contribution. I think the policy informing
the Freedom Of Information bill should look towards
empowering the citizens through facilitating their access
to knowledge/information. We need to think through how our
collective data regarding our heritage, history, social and
economic transactions can be harnessed and made to serve
the common good.
I know this bill has tended to create controversy because
it has often been looked at in the narrow terms of the Govt
vs the Media i.e. Media seeks info visa-vis Govt sits on
Info. True, this could be one of the issues but it should
not limit our scope because the bill should be a reflection
of broader policy issues that touch on different data
sitting on various platforms such as (Private) Media
Broadcasters, Mobile service providers, ISPs, eBankers,
etc.
How for example can KTN be asked to share (or sell) their
valuable film clips to the Kenya Archives dept? How can the
East African Standard avail their 100years+ data to the
public? When or Why should Safaricom/Celtel divulge the
SMS transcript of a certain subscriber to the Police, to
the Media or the Private Investigator? What kind of data
security standards and practices should we place for
critical and national data stores such as KRA, KPA,
Immigration, etc? What of the Certification Authority (CA)
providers that are likely to play a cenral role in a future
eCommerce environment, how will they collect, protect and
avail their data?
So I think these are some of the Policy issues that need to
be thrashed out in the process of coming up with the final
FOI bill.
walu.
--- joseph kihanya <kihanyajn at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I trust we may now move on to day 3. Those with comments
> still on day 1 and 2 can still do so.
> The themes were...
>
> Day 1: Why Freedom of Information (FOI) Act?
> Day 2: What are the current modalities for accessing data
> held by Data Handlers (Govt or Private Sector)?
>
>
> Today's topic really looks as to waht should be the basic
> reasoning behind the FOI policy and hence law.
>
> The principles listed hereunder have been recognized by
> Article 19 ( an international organizatioin dealing with
> freedomm of te press and related issues) as what should
> guide the FOI laws(policy).
>
> • PRINCIPLE 1. Maximum disclosure
>
> That the law should seek this as its underpinning
> philosophy.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 2. Obligation to publish
>
> That there should be an obligation to publish and
> requests should be for non-crucial/ essential / bulky
> information.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 3. Promotion of open government
>
> That the law should promote / recognise the importance
> of open government.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 4. Limited scope of exceptions
>
> That the exceptions should be clear , precise and
> allowable in a democratic society/ i,e should not take
> away what the law seeks to grant.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 5. Processes to facilitate access
>
> Clear processes for request should exist.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 6. Costs
>
> These should be kept at a minimum for the public has
> already paid for the creation of the information through
> taxation.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 7. Open meetings
>
> Other than informnation, there should bea promotion of
> open dialogue at decsion making level.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 8. Disclosure takes precedence
>
> The tests that are to be applied by the commssioner and
> the appeal tribunal should seek disclosre unless the
> exceptions and the public interest demand otherwise.
>
> • PRINCIPLE 9. Protection for whistleblowers
>
> That those who disclose information that is in the public
> interest, inspite of the exceptions should not be
> victimised/ should be protected.
>
>
> Lets go!
>
> Kihanya
>
>
>
>
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