update: roundtable discussion to take place October 9

Mikael Book (book@kaapeli.fi)
Wed, 5 Aug 1998 22:28:35 +0300 (EEST)

the date of the roundtable discussion on the right to information has
been fixed to October 9, 1998. The afternoon (at least) will be
reserved for the discussion, with a reception afterwards.

The event will take place at the Finnish Institute, 35-36 Eagle Street,
London. Four organisations ( 2 Finnish, 2 British) plus the Finnish
Institute have agreed to act as organisers. These are:

Scarman Trust
Charter 88
The Finnish Library Association
Katto-Meny Cooperative Society
The Finnish Institute in London

(see short presentations of the organisers at the end of this note)

As a next step, the organisers will put together a programme for the
discussion. The programme and new invitations will be sent (at least) to
those who have responded. There has been good response to the initiative
not only in Britain and Finland, but also in France and Scandinavia. Which
means that its echo will be heard in wider circles than that of the
roundtble itself, to which a maximum of thirty people is expected to
participate. For financial reasons, it will not be possible to pay travel
and accomodation for more than a dozen participants from abroad Britain,
keynote speakers included. We have as yet got no binding promise of
financial support from any potential source. This problem must soon be
solved.

In the meantime, please send reflections, thoughts, ideas, reports etc. on
the right to information to this list. I am working on an article
on the subject, in Swedish. Will translate it (or parts) for this list
when its ready, but it develops slowly. So help me by sending your
contributions.

Yours,

- Mikael

The Scarman Trust is a national charity, dedicated to helping people gain
greater power over their lives, especially by formulating new ‘deals’
between community-based organisations and decision makers in government.
(see, for instance, http://www.charter88.org.uk/press/scarman1.html)

Charter 88 is an independent campaign for a modern and fair democracy.
See http://www.charter88.org.uk/politics/why88.html

The Finnish Library Association is a professional organisation. It has
2.200 personal members, mostly working in public libraries; the few
institutional members are folk high schools etc., not libraries. See www.fla.fi.

Katto-Meny is an Internet service provider, which is organised as a
cooperative society. Its 300 members (owners) are cultural and civic
associations (NGOs), small business enterprises, writers, performing
artists, journalists etc. See http://www.kaapeli.fi/katto/

The Finnish Institute in London has a homepage at
http://www.finnish-institute.org.uk/

----

From:

Mikael Book * Katto-Meny * Tallbergink 1/39 * FIN-00180 Helsinki
book@kaapeli.fi * Phone +358-9-6947730 * Fax +358-9-27090369
gsm 040 5511 324