Civil society organisations, including TI, are increasingly asserting the rights of citizens to know what governments, international organisations and private corporations are doing and how public resources are being allocated. A number of African TI chapters have been involved in the drafting and promotion of freedom of information legislation. The importance of access to information in the fight against corruption is reflected by one of the more salient provisions of the AU Convention (Article 9), which reads: “Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures to give effect to the right of access to any information that is required to assist in the fight against corruption and related offences.” For reference to Article 9, see p. 42 of this brochure:

As one of the key priorities of TI in the Middle East and North Africa region raising awareness has been coupled with projects to improve access to information and stress the development of an independent, non-state financed media. These projects include two recent workshops organized by TI-Lebanon, from which a Green Book on access to information was produced, the AMAN coalition in Palestine's work on the first draft law in the Arab World on access to information, and the on-going work of AACC-Algeria to establish a database with publications linked to corruption.