Transparency International

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Template:Otherusesof Transparency International (TI) is an international organisation addressing corruption, including, but not limited to, political corruption.

Image:Ti prague nov98.jpg

TI is organised as a group of some 90 national chapters, with an international secretariat. Originally founded in Germany as a not-for-profit organisation, TI is now an international non-governmental organisation, and claims to be moving towards a completely democratic organisational structure. The organisation describes itself as follows:

Transparency International is the leading global non-governmental organisation devoted to combating corruption. Its mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption.

It rejects any idea of "northern superiority" regarding corruption, and is committed to exposing corruption world-wide. Since 1995 TI issues an annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI); it also publishes an annual Global Corruption Report.

The value of the CPI is disputed - criticism has focused on the fact that it is based on polls indicating the "subjective appreciation of the polled people as to the amount of corruption in the studied countries rather than on objective information". It has also been asserted that what is legally defined, or perceived, to be corruption differs between jurisdictions: a political donation legal in some jurisdiction may be illegal in another. Likewise, one country's acceptable tip may be another country's unacceptable bribe.

To such criticism, TI replies that it does indeed use comparative methods as developed in recent decades by authoritative institutions and also that its aim is in any case to develop a convergence of views on corruption, including engendering a united front in relation to how integrity can become ingrained in civic processes.

A review of the linkages between countries' competitiveness and the incidence of corruption was initiated at a TI workshop in the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Prague, November 1989.

1 The Transparency-Blog-Incident
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

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The Transparency-Blog-Incident

In March 2006 TI Germany attempted to ban an article from a German Blog<ref>Blog: gedankenträger</ref>. In this article the blogger expressed her disapproval about a friend’s dismissal who used to work at TI Germany. This led many German bloggers to protest against TI’s offensive method of suppressing the freedom of opinion by dissuasion (possibly by way of action later) rather than a dialog with the young - unemployed - blogger.

This reaction of the German blogosphere aroused increased media interest - first web magazines, later the printed press reported about this case<ref>Gebloggte Meinungen David Fischer-Kerli, taz, retrieved 29.03.2006</ref>. After the blogger got some help from an also blogging German lawyer, TI Germany and the blogger came to an agreement - and after the press’s reactions increased the pressure on TI. TI Germany never published a conclusive comment on this (a press release making some details on the monthly income of the affected employee was withdrawn very quickly).

In this context, the online edition of the Tagesschau (German newsmagazine of the public TV station ARD) published an article which quotes the TI Germany board member Jochen Bäumel. Bäumel is a former correspondent of the ARD and this article delineated the dispute only from TI's point of view. In the meantime, the article was revised<ref> Transparency International im Clinch mit Weblogs Fiete Stegers, tagesschau.de, retrieved 30.03.2006</ref>, but the old version is still online<ref>Transparency International im Clinch mit Weblogs Fiete Stegers, tagesschau.de, retrieved 28.03.2006</ref>.

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