The Lord Chancellor has given his backing to a Newspaper Society initiative to promote openness from public authorities ahead of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which comes into force over the next two and a half years.
Regional newspaper editors are writing to public authorities across the country to encourage them to work together. Public bodies are currently engaged in drawing up ‘publication schemes’ required by the Act, under which they will be obliged to make whole categories of information available to the public without the need for specific request.
Santha Rasaiah, political, editorial and regulatory affairs director of the Newspaper Society commented: “As the Lord Chancellor acknowledges, it is regional newspapers that most closely follow the developments of the public authorities and inform their readers of what is going on. If the ‘right to know’ is really going to mean something to everyone, then the media must do all it can to ensure that the public authorities actually consult the public, do not decide unilaterally what information will and will not be automatically available and, above all, release the maximum amount possible.”
The Lord Chancellor has provided an open letter for editors to send to public authorities and will recieve results of the exercise from the Newspaper Society via the Advisory Group on the Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act on which it is represented.
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