Poland less transparent than Russia - report

Poland ranked 35th in a report on the government transparency level published by the international World Wide Web Foundation. The UK came in first among the 86 countries included in the analysis. Poland scored lowered than Estonia (13th), the Czech Republic (17th), Russia (26th) and Hungary (33rd) what makes the Polish government less transparent than Russian authorities. The open data barometer, which measures how data about government’s activity is accessible for citizens was used as a research tool. The authors included Poland in the emerging & advancing countries category, described as “countries [which] have emerging or established open data programmes — often as dedicated initiatives, and sometimes built into existing policy agendas. ... [They] have a variety of different strengths and have great potential to develop innovative approaches to open data. However, many still face challenges to mainstreaming open data across government and institutionalising it as a sustainable practice.” Poland ranked 14th in the group. What is interesting, Poland was placed alongside with not only Russia and the Czech Republic, but China, India, Mexico, South Africa as well. In 2013, the G8 leaders signed an Open Data Charter aiming to make public sector data openly available.