If you are denied access to information, you can fight for your rights in court. What can you gain, and when is it worth the hassle? Staffan Dahllöf has taken the Swedish state to court for denying access to environmental information, invoking the Aarhus Convention.Eva Belmonte has repeatedly challenged Spanish authorities in court, seeking transparency on multiple fronts: the passengers of official planes, the true cost of government-procured medicines, the identities of public advisors, and most recently, access to the algorithms governing social policy decisions. Alexander Fanta has sued the German government for documents about its support for Ukraine, and inspired a court case in which the New York Times fought for access to text messages between Ursula von der Leyen's and the CEO of Pfizer during the Covid pandemic. Tarjei Leer-Salvesen won an FOI request from the US State Department, when civilian vessels from his area turned up in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy. Hear their thoughts and tactics – and how they use the fight for transparency in their journalism.
Did you know there is a tool which can set aside the protection of business secrets? Journalists have used it to access details on Russian bitcoin-mining near a Nato-exercise, from privately owned salmon farms and overseas fracking-operations. In this session you learn about the Aarhus Convention. The beauty of this tool is not only that it in some cases overrules secrecy of business interests but also the vague or wide defintion of environmental information. Welcome to learn how this can be done, and how to argue in order to open otherwise closed doors.
