Open Ownership Panellists Photos at the 2023 Summit for Democracy in Lusaka, Zambia. Photo: TI Zambia.
Situation
Open Ownership (OO) is a non-profit organisation that works closely with elected governments and civil society to drive greater corporate transparency across the world by making it easy to publish and access high-quality, linked data about the ultimate ownership of companies, in whichever jurisdiction they are registered, known as beneficial ownership transparency.
As part of this work, OO uses case studies that refer to one or more specific actors by name, including individuals, legal entities, and legal arrangements such as trusts, creating the risk of litigation claiming that these disclosures constitute defamation and seeking compensation for the damage to reputation.
ILP’s Action
ILP provided training for the 13 staff members of OO on libel law.
Impact
This training supported the capacity of the OO team to conduct pre-publication checks on potential libel and defamation risks in revealing who owns companies around the world. This work supports global efforts on beneficial ownership transparency to help tackle corruption, illicit financial flows, reduce investment risks and improve national and global governance.