---

Government has been soliciting comments on proposed Freedom of Information laws. Here’s my official submission:

“Do it! The freer the better, the sooner the better. But almost anything is better than what we have now.”

And that’s all that needs to be said. Everything that follows here is really just the fine print.

The first point to make is that it takes a brave Government to introduce a Freedom of Information Act.

Historically, political parties only champion this kind of stuff when they are beleaguered and frustrated in opposition.

They complain that the Government-of-the-day is hiding its blunders, making shady deals behind closed doors, and looking after itself rather than the citizens. And they promise a Freedom of Information Act, if they are elected to power.

But when they get elected, a Freedom of Information Act is suddenly the last thing they want. They’ve made lots of promises, but who needs people prying through the records, second-guessing Government decisions, accusing good people of wrongdoing, misinterpreting information and taking things out of context?

So what typically follows is a watered-down version of a Freedom of Information Act — enough so they can say they fulfilled their promise, but not enough to actually get them into trouble. This Freedom of Information Act, it is true, was originally proposed by the Opposition UBP in its last election platform.

But instead of politely ignoring it, as you’d expect a Government to do, the PLP picked it up, called it its own, and ran with it.

Everything Government has said so far suggests this is a genuine and thorough Freedom of Information Act — exactly the kind of thing Bermuda badly needs.

The only watering-down I’ve seen, so far, is the promise to have it introduced by 2009-2011.

There is plenty of preparation and organization that needs to be done ahead of time, it is true.

It’s no good having records open to the public, when nobody can find the records or make sense of them, or provide a place to view them or a means to make copies of them.

And there’s no freedom if every request for information is rejected on the grounds of privacy or security. There needs to be an efficient way of sifting through information, and dealing quickly and fairly with the assorted disputes and objections that will inevitably arise.

But the biggest challenge that lies ahead of us — one that could and should be addressed long before 2011 — is changing the way all of us think about information.

Closed society

Bermuda is a closed society in many ways. There is little sense of entitlement to information. Governments don’t feel the need to share information, to ‘think out loud’, or to allow ordinary people to see how decisions are made.

Questioning is frequently interpreted as a challenge and an interference, rather than healthy involvement.

It is, perhaps, a natural legacy of a paternalistic past. But it needs to change if our society is ever going to be truly open, and if a Freedom of Information Act is going to be truly effective.

Government generally should be more open and communicative about what it is doing, and less fearful of criticism. Committees and councils and boards need to be opened up to the public. City councils need to be open to the public, as do parish councils, as do meetings of the planning board.

We in the media must change as well. We should be constantly pushing the envelope, challenging secrecy every step of the way as a matter of principle. And we must be willing to spend the money — on manpower, and also on lawyers and court cases — to make sure that doors are not closed on public information.

There is no reason to wait until 2011 to change.

The mind-shift should start immediately.[[In-content Ad]]

---