Transparency for the blind

The Freedom of Information Act (FIA) which came into power at the beginning of the year was outwardly intended to "open government up" to the people. It was promised that the bill would lead to a new era of transparency, that citizens would be able to see inside the traditionally secretive corridors of power (or at least pay a tenner to see what records the government keeps about us). As ever, this was only ever half of the story. The FIA seems custom built to allow the government to share information between its various departments, but still withhold it from normal citizens.

Case in point: The Guardian has discovered that the MoD refuses to share information about its employees, citing the Data Protection Act, Human Rights Act and security restrictions. Security is, of course, a decent reason to a certain degree: your average analyst at GCHQ wouldn't want people hassling them because the Sun had run some campaign or other and printed their home telephone number (as would probably happen eventually). But this is a matter of tightening the law on harassment. As for the DPA and human rights laws, if the MoD succeeds in setting this precedent, the whole FIA would be rendered fairly useless.

Perhaps this ought not surprise observers, given how famously secretive the current government is.

tombcn.com - my blog posts about travel, books, food and music