Don't lock up information

When three Public Works Department employees died overwhelmed by fatal gases in a cesspit in Cirkewwa in 2000, files dating back to 1960 and 1977 documenting the specific health and safety requirements to prevent such tragedies were dumped somewhere in the department's archives.

Incredibly, the then head of department had said he was not even aware of those files as "no handing over" had taken place when he took over.

Not only were the files that could have saved their lives kept secret for decades, but even the findings of a departmental inquiry investigating the deaths and which established the existence of the files and that the gas monitoring equipment was "grossly outdated" were kept under wraps by the minister responsible for public works for two years possibly in a bid to stop workers' relatives from suing for compensation.

Besides the extent of the tragedy, the victims' families had to face a concrete wall of silence that left them utterly powerless, to the point of desperation.

Secrecy, as in this case, can be fatal. At worst, we won't even know its consequences. CIA flights to Malta remain shrouded in mystery, Cabinet minutes, even of decades ago, remain classified, and search and rescue operations records, kept by the Armed Forces - essential to establish the chronology and responsibilities in immigrants' tragedies in the Mediterranean sea - remain inaccessible. Government contracts are being kept from the public on the grounds that they have "commercially sensitive" information, released only at ministers' discretion or because of parliamentary obligations. Other records are kept secret on grounds of "data protection", thanks to a piece of legislation that was enacted without its public interest counterpart - the Freedom of Information Act.

It is this much-needed piece of legislation that would open the doors of accountability and public scrutiny in a way that we've never experienced till now.

What drives us is the concrete wall of silence we are faced with, as working journalists and private citizens, whenever public officials, heads of department, civil servants and ministers decide to keep under wraps information that is of interest to the public.

Arbitrary decisions are being taken about the release of information relating to our government. At times the flow of information is regulated directly by the ministers who may have every interest not to put it in the public domain.

We are even more disappointed that despite Malta's accession to the European Union, the enactment of a Freedom of Information law remains secondary to economic dictates from Brussels, despite growing public pressure for transparency and accountability in decisions that affect us all. Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus are the only EU member states that are still without a Freedom of Information Act.

The establishment of the Ombudsman's office and the reformed National Audit Office have helped tremendously in dismantling this regime of secrecy. But it is often only in thorough, albeit belated, inquiries, such as the latest report by the Auditor General on the squandering of public funds at the Voice of the Mediterranean radio station that closed down three years ago, that the most essential of information is released.

What we need now is a law that guarantees speedy access to information of public interest, an independent guarantor of this right with the power to order the release of such information, and a clear gesture of openness from the government through leading by example.

Because the law would be ineffective without a great change towards a culture of openness. It won't happen on its own; the law would speed up the process but it definitely needs a guarantor of freedom of information who takes the side of accountability and democracy and who acts as a constant watchdog on public institutions.

The author is chairman of the Journalists' Committee.
journalists.committee@gmail.com
The Journalists' Committee will be holding a public conference, Freedom of Information Act For Malta: Time To Act?, tonight at 8 at the Radisson SAS Baypoint Resort, St Julians. The key speakers will be Tony Bunyan, editor of the award winning civil liberties watchdog Statewatch, and Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists. The event is sponsored by The Strickland Foundation, Air Malta, Radisson SAS Baypoint and Fortina Spa Resort.