This FOIA Friday coincides with a particularly special day for transparency enthusiasts throughout the world. Celebrate by quizzing yourself on global FOI facts and sending us your own!

Today is International Right to Know Day, a date when groups around the world celebrate the importance of freedom of information to both democracy and good governance. Yet there is little to celebrate in Canada.

Today, this 28th day of September 2016, marks International Right-To-Know Day, currently celebrating 250 years of Right-To-Know legislation on the Earth. In 1766, a full ten years before the United States birthed itself, Sweden adopted “His Majesty’s Gracious Ordinance Relating to Freedom of Writing and of the Press,” and so set an example for open access to governments around the world - at last count, 113 in total.

Last week, MuckRock’s Beryl Lipton had the good fortune of joining an international coalition of Freedom of Information warriors in Madrid, España for AlaveteliCon 2015. For two days, over two dozen representatives of various transparency websites from across the globe discussed the triumphs and tragedies, the successes and stresses of FOI.