Right to Know Week is an internationally recognized right for citizens to access government information. Why does this matter?
The "right to know" is embedded in access laws and reverses the flow of power from the government to its citizens.
Information obtained from access requests gives citizens the opportunity to respond and give meaningful feedback on what their government is doing. It is for this reason that access legislation is seen as a cornerstone of democracy. In fact, some have suggested that the effectiveness of a nation's access legislation directly reflects the health of that country's democracy.
Effective access to information legislation assists in ensuring democracy is a reality and not simply a perception.
As former Information Commissioner John Reid so eloquently commented in his 2005-2006 annual report, "…parliament wanted members of the public to have the positive legal right to get the facts, not the 'spin'…."
This week we bring awareness to every citizen's "Right to Know"; and the democratic values of access instilled in law.
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