Italy corruption vote: new law, new start?

Update: Italian deputies voted 481 to 19 in favour of the law on Wednesday 31 October. Read Transparency International Italy’s press release here. Tomorrow, Italy’s Chamber of Deputies will finally vote on a new anti-corruption law, following a debate tonight. The bill was already approved by the Senate on 18 October369. While no panacea for […]

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Will Berlusconi sentence stick?

Exceptionally high numbers of cases are being dismissed in Italy: from 2005-2009, 10 to 13 per cent of all criminal court proceedings have been closed because they ran out of time, meaning that one in 10 trials ended with impunity for the alleged offender. That is more than 150 000 cases a year. In Hungary, the rate was less than one per cent. In Finland, it was less than 0.1 per cent.

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No Impunity: Armenian politicians duck justice

It is nothing new for Armenians to see their politicians accused of corruption. Usually the accusations have little effect and in a few instances people may change jobs but they rarely get punished. In July 2012, however, a court in the United States returned a guilty verdict against Vardan Ayvazyan, a former environment minister and […]

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Hackers fighting Corruption?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word hacker? Most of us think hackers are hacking computer security systems to steal important and confidential information. It is only partially true, since there are hackers who contribute real solutions to social problems such as corruption. When we asked participants of the global Transparency International […]

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Georgian elections: international monitors help defuse tension

By the early hours of October 2, polling stations had closed and the Georgian parliamentary elections appeared to have passed without any major violations. Official ballot counts were nearly complete when one of our observers reported that armed special forces had stormed several polling stations in the west of the country, demanded that observers leave […]

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Open Government Partnership: From Commitment to Action…?

Under the Open Government Partnership  governments commit to transparency, and using technology to fight corruption. The Partnership creates a potentially unique opportunity for civil society to push for government accountability and empower citizens in the fight against corruption. Gathered at a scenic Adriatic coast in Dubrovnik, European civil society organisations were supposed to discuss their […]

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Corporate accountability in the food chain – where spin stops and deception begins

There is no such thing as an average consumer. The choices we make are shaped by our means, aspirations and priorities. We all give different weight to price, quality, convenience and ethical considerations. But it is impossible for us to evaluate all the products we buy and something we all share is that, ultimately, our […]

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Bangladesh: citizens doubt performance of politicians

A new survey on the performance of MPs by Transparency International Bangladesh is creating a media storm nationally and elsewhere. Since we released it at the start of the week, there have been hundreds of news stories, dozens of newspaper editorials and more than 20 hours of talk shows on nearly all our TV channels, […]

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After Armstrong agony, cycling must reform

Last week, the anti-doping body for Olympic sports in the United States, the US Anti-Doping Agency released a dossier in excess of 1000 pages supporting its assertion that 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and his US Postal Service team ran a doping programme from 1998-2005. It now seems that, bar three years, the […]

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Green Climate Fund: with so much at stake we can’t afford foul play

Urgency and precaution are not easily reconcilable. The Green Climate Fund – which meets today for the second time – will have to negotiate that balance. As climate negotiations chug along laboriously, this global fund will ensure that much-needed investment is not stalled as a result. By 2020 it could be holding the purse strings […]

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