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PurposeThe Jodi Awards exist to promote digital access to culture. This paper aims to give some background to the Awards and to profile the 2011 winner and commendation.Design/methodology/approachThe Jodi Awards are annual awards given to celebrate the best examples of using technology to make culture and cultural institutions accessible to people with a disability.FindingsMuch has already been achieved in using technology to widen access to museums, galleries and heritage venues but there is clear potential for more development, given the appropriate political will and policy change.Originality/valueThe Jodi Awards are unique in celebrating the use of technology in this way.

Introduction -- Bridging the gaps between jurisdictions : analysing legal transplant theory as a means of legal reform -- The Aarhus convention : the global standard for the right of access to environmental information? -- The environmental information regime in England -- The right of access to environmental information in the United States -- East meets West : the right of access to environmental information in China -- The future development of the right of access to environmental information : applying legal transplant theory to England, the US and China -- Conclusions, key findings and future directions.

Since gaining independence from the British Empire in 1964, Malta has had a very restrictive voting policy. Voter enfranchisement is based on three pillars: citizenship, residence and age. The only exceptions to this rule, introduced in 2004 as a result of EU accession, are the electoral rights granted to EU citizens at local and European Parliament elections. Prior to this, British citizens resident in Malta had already been granted Local Council electoral rights in 1993, when Local Council elections started being held. This latter 'exception' can be attributed to the strong ties between the two countries due to the historical colonial relationship, and by the mere fact that the British expat community is the largest foreign group in Malta. Voting is deeply entrenched in Maltese political culture. An indication of this lies in the consistently high voter turnout at national elections – 96 per cent in 2003 and 93 per cent in 2008. This is the highest for non-mandatory elections worldwide, often superseding even countries where voting is mandatory. The political scientist William Hirzy attributes this high voter turnout to the intense competition between the two main political parties, and the results are always very close; the national elections in 2008 were the closest, won by a mere 1,600 votes. Indeed, elections are preceded by aggressive campaigns, fraught with a confrontational style of electioneering. Loyalties to the two main political parties are 'strong, stable and rooted in social and family backgrounds.' This signifies, and is a result of, what the European studies scholar Michelle Cini has described as the 'extremely high stakes at general elections.' Interestingly, in spite of the fact that Malta uses a version of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system which allows voters to cross party lists when selecting their candidates, in practice voters tend to vote per party. This shows the paramount importance of party allegiance for the Maltese. With such a deeply pervasive political culture, it is positively. The electoral rights of foreigners, in general, have not been a major topic of discussion in Maltese politics and society. Indeed, the question of enfranchising foreigners is rarely critically addressed by Maltese politicians, major institutions or Maltese society. Alternatives to the present system are hardly ever mentioned, except in some cases by 'Alternattiva Demokratika', the Green Party, a very small party which has only had limited success in a few Local Council elections. Even EU citizens, who have been enfranchised in Local Council and European Parliament elections since 2004, did not managed to stir a significant debate when they encountered difficulties in accessing their electoral rights. This demonstrates the inflexibility towards new alternatives and the reluctance to consider foreign voters on an equal par with Maltese voters. The paucity of debates in this field is interrupted, albeit on a minor scale, by two issues: the question of in-country voting together with the public expense of subsidising flights for eligible voters abroad, and the incident when around 19,000 EU resident citizens (constituting the vast majority) were struck off the Electoral Register in the 2009 EP elections. The first issue is a long-standing debate on the current and exclusive policy of in-country voting. This is a discussion which flares up around each election and is specifically prompted by the practice of the last two decades of offering subsidised flights to Maltese citizens resident in Malta but temporarily abroad. This practice is almost perceived as an entitlement or a right by many who feel that it ensures their access to the right to vote. It is, however, a costly practice when one takes into consideration the increasing number of Maltese people abroad and the newfound difficulty of proving that the minimum residence requirement has been met since Malta acceded to the EU and the Schengen area. In addition, one could also argue that the residency requirement is out-dated in the context of EU membership since it clashes with freedom of movement which is one of the fundamental pillars of the EU. The second issue which has arisen over the last years has to do with EU resident citizens' access to electoral rights in Malta. This had to do with the implementation of EU law and apparently procedural issues. EU resident citizens complain of discriminatory practices, that they were struck off the Electoral Register, and were therefore unable to vote in European Parliament elections. This issue has been championed by the Green Party, the smallest and 'youngest' party which has never managed to elect representatives in Parliament. The fact that this issue, and other issues regarding foreigners in Malta, are championed by the Green Party, and not generally by the main parties, is significant in itself and is to no small degree motivated by a vested interest in bringing about change to the traditional political culture. ; Research for the EUDO Citizenship Observatory Country Reports has been jointly supported, at various times, by the European Commission grant agreements JLS/2007/IP/CA/009 EUCITAC and HOME/2010/EIFX/CA/1774 ACIT, by the European Parliament and by the British Academy Research Project CITMODES (both projects co-directed by the EUI and the University of Edinburgh). The financial support from these projects is gratefully acknowledged. ; peer-reviewed

The issue of passive and active electoral rights in Bolivia has gone through various phases that are examined in details in this article. Universal suffrage in Bolivia occurred around the same time as in most states in that region: in the middle of the 20th century. The next wave of reforms occurred during the 1980s when dictatorships were removed from power. At that time, processes of democratization intensified in Bolivia and other parts of Latin America, eventually leading to the progressive strengthening of democratic institutions. It is really during the 1990s and early 2000s that the most important democratic transformations occurred. Major institutional reforms were passed during this period in particular to increase the participation of women and indigenous peoples in public affairs. The inclusion of the principles of gender equality and interculturality in the new constitution of 2009 is one of the clearest sign of this new approach. Similarly, another sector of the Bolivian population that had been traditionally prevented from exercising political rights. that is, Bolivians residing abroad have been closely attended to by the Evo Morales government since 2006. After the first external voting experience in 2009, the system was once again reformed to enable greater participation from abroad in the 2014 presidential election. These elements confirm that the extension of political rights in Bolivia is a process that has gone trough major changes over the past two decades but remains a work in process. ; Peer reviewed

Electoral rights for Irish citizens abroad and for foreign residents have been a topic of political debate (less so of legislative reform) for at least fifty years. There is a long-standing demand that Irish emigrants be given some parliamentary representation, in either the upper house (Seanad Éireann) or the lower house (Dáil Éireann). The only electoral rights granted to Irish citizens not ordinarily resident in the State are the right to be elected to either house of parliament and, for graduates of certain universities within the State, a vote in the election of the Senators representing those universities. Elections to the European Parliament apart, in relation to the electoral rights of non-citizens ordinarily resident in Ireland, a sharp distinction exists between local elections (where all ordinarily resident in the State, irrespective of citizenship, have both active and passive electoral rights) and elections to Dáil Éireann, in which only Irish citizens have the right to be elected and only Irish citizens, British citizens (and, potentially, citizens of other European Union member states) have the right to vote. Wide extension of electoral rights in local elections has been uncontroversial and there was little opposition to the constitutional amendment in 1984 providing for the possibility of noncitizens voting in Dáil elections. Issues concerning the extension of electoral rights generally appear to provoke relatively little public interest; extending a form of postal voting to all prisoners in the State, irrespective of their crimes or the duration of their sentences attracted little public attention.

Research for the EUDO Citizenship Observatory Country Reports has been jointly supported, at various times, by the European Commission grant agreements JLS/2007/IP/CA/009 EUCITAC and HOME/2010/EIFX/CA/1774 ACIT, by the European Parliament and by the British Academy Research Project CITMODES (both projects co-directed by the EUI and the University of Edinburgh).