In Finland, "Open Ministry" Brings Legislation From the Crowd
BY Antonella Napolitano | Friday, September 28 2012
Tech entrepreneurs in Finland have created Open Ministry, an open-source platform for citizens to discuss proposals and collect the necessary signatures online. Read More
Ukrainian Civic Movement Unveils Online Tool to Monitor Parliament Members
BY Antonella Napolitano | Monday, July 30 2012
A new tool for monitoring parliament members' activity is now available online, the Kyiv Post reports. The tool has been created by Chesno (“honest”), a civic movement founded a year ago by a group of civil society organizations with the aim of empowering citizens with information tools and improving their knowledge and political choices. Read More
The Pirate Party Has A Brazilian Chapter
BY Antonella Napolitano | Monday, July 30 2012
Last Friday, Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Pirate Party, announced the birth of the Brazilian chapter of the movement. The “Partido Pirata do Brasil” may have soon the chance of raising its voice, as Brazil is also in the process of discussing an advanced law on net neutrality and Internet access, Falkvinge added. Read More
Iceland MP Jónsdóttir Is Creating a Pirate Party Chapter in Her Own Country
BY Antonella Napolitano | Wednesday, July 18 2012
Iceland's MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir is planning to form a chapter of the Pirate Party in her own country, the Reykjavík Grapevine reports. Jónsdóttir, a poet and an activist, has been the most visible Iceland's MP in these last years, mainly involved in all the initiatives to foster citizens' participation in the democracy process. Read More
European Parliament Rejects Controversial Anti-Piracy Agreement
BY Antonella Napolitano | Wednesday, July 4 2012
Earlier today, the European Parliament rejected a controversial intellectual property framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, by a tally of 478 votes to 39 with 165 abstentions. The agreement would have allowed European Union member states to join an intellectual property and anti-piracy regime that sets strict rules for how to handle anything from the downloading of copyrighted material to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Read More
Personal Democracy Media at the State of the Net conference, Italy
BY Antonella Napolitano | Thursday, June 21 2012
The State of the Net conference, taking place tomorrow and Saturday in the historic city of Trieste, aims at describing the state of the art of the Internet in Italy and the challenges that the country is facing in a global perspective. Personal Democracy Media is partnering with the conference and curating the transparency section, happening this Saturday. Read More
Catching Up With Personal Democracy Forum Brussels 2012
BY Antonella Napolitano | Friday, June 1 2012
PDF Europe editor Antonella Napolitano writes: "Our first conference took place yesterday at the Brussels Press Club and featured MEPs, journalists, EU communications officials, diplomats, bloggers. If you could not attend, you can catch up thanks to this Storify created by Aurélie Valtat." Read More
Announcing PdF Brussels, May 31st!
BY Antonella Napolitano | Monday, May 7 2012
This month, PDF finally comes to Brussels! Over the years, we have covered many issues related to techpolitics within the EU institutions. So, for us, it just felt natural to organize a PDF event in Brussels, where most of these decisions are made. The next European elections are less than two years away; the economic crisis has left many countries across the continent in a similar situation; unemployment is rising, political extremism is rising, digital media is the norm: is a European public sphere also being formed online? Read More
Still a Long Way to Go for Spain's First Transparency Law
BY Antonella Napolitano | Monday, April 23 2012
Last Wednesday, the Spanish government presented a draft freedom of information law at the Open Government Partnership conference in Brasilia, but faced strong criticism coming from civil society and NGOs. For the first time in Spain, the law will create specific rules for information access and transparency. Activists, though, argue that the draft is not strong enough and does not meet international standards, as it fails to recognize access as a fundamental right and gives a restrictive definition of the information that can be accessed. Read More
ACTA Rapporteur Says He'll Recommend Against the Treaty
BY Antonella Napolitano | Tuesday, April 17 2012
British MEP David Martin, responsible for providing guidance to European Parliament on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, will recommend the rejection of the treaty, he announced on April 12. Martin will submit his final report to the International Trade Committee, the main parliamentary committee involved in the ACTA debate, later this month. Read More