Freedom of Information Act 'would empower citizens'

It was "shocking and scandalous" that Maltese journalists were repeatedly denied access to the detention centres, insisted Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists.

It is in the public's interest that detention centres are open to public scrutiny and he condemned the government's insistence to bar journalists from entering, he said.

A keynote speaker at The Journalists' Committee's first conference at the Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort, St Julians, which tackled A Freedom of Information Act For Malta: Time To Act?, Mr White said the decision to allow journalists into detention centres on the eve of a visit by MEPs last March was a mere act of "window-dressing".

Enacted in other European countries to ensure transparency and accountability, the Freedom of Information Act protects the right to access public records except in cases violating the right to privacy and national security. An expert consultant to the European Commission and the United Nations on mass media policy, journalism and human rights, Mr White said that freedom of information was vital at a time when headlines were dominated by fears of terrorism and the ugliness of the intractable conflict in the Middle East.

Every government, Malta included, should provide its citizens with legal access to official information, at all levels of government and administration.

Discussing Malta's situation where political parties actually owned media and used it heavily for their propaganda, Mr White said the time had come for the owners to allow editorial freedom and set aside political interference.

"Certainly, the current political division of broadcasting, and some of the press, can only be seen as something of an absurd anachronism in an age when our first priority is to get politicians out of the modern newsroom, not to institutionalise their participation in journalism which, as we have seen in Italy, causes headaches for democracy and professionalism," he said.

Mr White said journalists themselves perhaps faced the greatest test, and divisions were a luxury nobody could afford.

"We need to stick together to protect our professionalism, to defend our working conditions and to ensure we can deliver the accurate and reliable information people increasingly need to improve their lives," he said.

Mr White ended by saying that the IFJ wanted to work with Maltese journalists to build a strong and confident community of reporters and editors who could work together, even when they came from different political and cultural traditions.

In the words of Tony Bunyan, editor of the award-winning civil liberties watchdog Statewatch in the UK, people had a right to know what governments are deciding in their name.

Mr Bunyan and his organisation have been fighting for the EU's openness in their constant struggle for access to documents relating to civil liberties, justice and home affairs in a climate that is becoming ever more secretive.

In Europe, Mr Bunyan said, governments were becoming more secretive and it was up to journalists to dig up information, which was systematically withheld by governments and EU institutions.

About 60 per cent of EU documents today are made public but the rest were still not disclosed until the decision process was at a very advanced stage.

This was why it was in the public interest that journalists did not rely on official statements or spin to obtain information, Mr Bunyan said.

Journalists' Committee chairman Karl Schembri said that while Malta remained only one of three EU member states without such a law, the public authorities and ministries kept using and abusing the Data Protection Act, introduced in 2003, to block information when solicited by journalists.

Mr Schembri spoke about what was effectively a witch hunt for whistleblowers, who remained unprotected in the disgraceful absence of a Whistleblower Act.

He insisted that the urgency for a Freedom of Information Act was not just a journalists' campaign - it was about empowering citizens, and creating a critical mass of public awareness to claim what was a right for a healthy democracy.

In last year's pre-budget document, the government said it would publish a White Paper on freedom of information by the end of this year.

The conference was supported by The Strickland Foundation, Air Malta, Radisson SAS and the Fortina Spa Resort.