The first addition for FreedomInfo’s new list of FOI quotations arrived shortly after we published it, requesting suggestions from readers.
Thanks to Jacqueline Strandberg, a policy analyst for the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, who keeps this quote on a post-it by her computer.
The practice of routinely holding information away from the public creates ‘subjects’ rather than ‘citizens’.
It comes from a 2003 report of the International Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (chaired by Professor Margaret Reynolds) called “OpenSesame: Looking for the Right to Information in the Commonwealth” and can be found on page 12.
Other Quotes Added
FreedomInfo.org also has added a few other entries, by economist Joseph Stiglitz and from a US commission report. Further suggestions welcome.
“Given that the public has paid for the gathering of government information, who owns the information? Is it the private province of the government official, or does it belong to the public at large? I would argue that information gathered by public officials at public expense is owned by the public — just as the chairs and buildings and other physical assets used by government belong to the public.” Joseph Stiglitz, Jan. 27, 1999. The Nobel prize-winning economist and former chief economist at the World Bank said this in an Oxford lecture, “On Liberty, the Right to Know, and Public Disclosure.”
“Secrecy provides some insulation against being accused of making a mistake… The second incentive that public officials have for pursuing secrecy is that secrecy provides the opportunity for special interests to have greater sway… Secrecy is the bedrock of [this] persistent form of corruption, which undermines confidence in democratic governments in so much of the world.” Joseph Stiglitz, Jan. 27, 1999. The Nobel prize-winning economist and former chief economist at the World Bank, said this in an Oxford lecture, “On Liberty, the Right to Know, and Public Disclosure.”
“Secrecy is a form of government regulation.” US Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, 1997.
“Excessive secrecy has significant consequences when policymakers are not fully informed, government is not held accountable for its actions, and the public cannot engage in informed debate.” US Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, 1997.
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