Nieuws - Wobbing Europe relaunched

BRUSSELS - The Pascal Decroos Fund is proud to present the relaunch of Wobbing Europe. Wobbing.eu inspires and supports journalists to use their right to freedom of information.

Wobbing Europe is also a network throughout Europe where journalists exchange experiences and tactics on using freedom of information legislation. The network will watch developments in the field in order to further strong legislation useful for fact based journalism.

This is a website for journalists and others, who use freedom of information laws to obtain information. Wobbing.eu is a news site, but also a tool and a meeting place for all interested. You can catch up,learn, practice – and help improve Wobbing Europe. Over time the website will grow as content will be gathered and categorised.

The co-editors of Wobbing.eu, Brigitte Alfter and Staffan Dahllöf, insist that the aims are the same as with the first website with the same name:
1. We like to inspire and support journalists to use their right to freedom of information as a journalistic tool.
2. We will build a network through out Europe where journalists can meet and exchange experience and tactics on using freedom of information legislation.
3. We will watch developments in the field in order to further strong legislation useful for fact based journalism.

Wobbing Europe provides specialized news
Wobbed out news: Stories of interest, where an freedom of information act was used to obtain important information; Wobbing.eu says a story was ”wobbed out”.
Legal news: Key wob-successes, court-decisions, legal changes and other news about the legal side of wobbing in European countries, in the EU, and in other intergovernmental or supranational organisations.

Wobbing Europe provides three types of feeds
Wobbing.eu recommends: Links that are of direct use for active wobbers with a particular focus on Europe: http://www.delicious.com/wobbing/wobbing
FOI community: Here Wobbing Europe gathers links that are of indirect use for active wobbers in Europe http://www.delicious.com/wobbing/FOI_community
Tweets : Twitter comments by journalists and others, who use FOI legislation regularly. Do let us know, if you want to contribute.
For each country Wobbing.eu provides as a minimum the link to the law.
As step-by-step instructions and articles are added instruction on how to use the national wob, case-law and other information will appear.

Documents from international bodies
For international bodies Wobbing.eu provides as a minimum the link to the law or regulation of this body. As articles are added instruction on how to use the particular wob, case-law and other information will appear.

Learn about methods
While the step-by-step instructions on how to use a certain wob varies highly from country to country, the tactics of wobbing are the same. Under method tactical considerations and examples of them will be onlined gradually.

Obstacles
Users of the wobs have to deal with exemptions from the laws on freedom of information as well as obstructions like time delay. Under obstacles you can search examples of the various obstacles, compare between countries or find all for one particular country.

Cross-border-wobbing
Many journalistic stories go across borders – and wobbing together with other journalists makes sense. Also stories may have relevance all over Europe due to common legislation. Here Wobbing.eu gathers examples of common Wob efforts by subject. Be inspired and join the wobbing-crowd.

Networking options
Wobbing.eu believes that journalists in various EU countries can help each other on questions of method, while they may be competitors on content. Wobbing Europe thus provides tools for cooperation in the form of specialized multi-direction mailinglists and social networking fora. Go to our networking section to see more.

For more information please contact the Wobbing Europe's co-editors Brigitte Alfter and Staffan Dahllöf