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The Right to Know

At the dawn of democracy, over two thousand years ago, Aristotle said that "all men, by nature, desire knowledge". As democracy developed and spread, the need for an informed electorate became evident. James Madison, the fourth president of the United States of America, said that "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives".

Historically, however, while accepting this principle, governments everywhere were often reluctant to release information and a culture of secrecy built up around their activities across the globe. Often the only way for the public to find out what was happening was by way of what Irishman, Edmund Burke, identified as "the fourth estate" i.e. the media. (The first three estates were the Church, the British House of Lords and the Commons). Some examples of media stories over the years include the Dreyfus case in France, the Watergate scandal in the United States, the sinking of the battleship Belgrano in the U.K. and the Beef Tribunal and Hepatitis "C" cases in Ireland.

However, in the recent past, to improve and strengthen the democratic process, the public has increasingly acquired a statutory "right to know". People now have a right to know how they are being governed and how decisions are taken that affect them directly. The principle underlying this development is known as "openness, transparency and accountability". This principle is now accepted as a corner-stone of functioning democracies everywhere. Indeed, in its White Paper on Good Governance the European Commission included them when it identified the five principles which underpin good governance:

  • openness
  • participation
  • accountability
  • effectiveness
  • coherence

Freedom of Information legislation plays a major role in this process.

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