Al Cross, Political Journalist and director of the Kentucky Institute for Rural Journalism, is making the link between historical lessons from Access to Information provisions in the United States and Botswana's ongoing debate. Read his speech given at MISA's public lecture in Gabarone on May 26. 

SPEECH 

 

Good morning. I am honored to be asked to speak to the friendsof MISA Botswana about the need for Freedom of Information Actin your country. I claim no special expertise on the affairs of yourbeautiful country, because I have been here only three days, but Ihope to share with you some of the experiences of my owncountry, and learn more about yours.

Our nations are firstcousins, because we both sprang from the United Kingdom, so wecan consider this a sort of family reunion.One of the fathers of my country, Thomas Jefferson, the principalauthor of our Declaration of Independence, once said this: “Thebasis of our governments being the opinion of the people, thevery first object should be to keep that right; and were it left tome to decide whether we should have a government withoutnewspapers or newspapers without a government, I should nothesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”Jefferson said that in 1787, when our Constitution was beingwritten. I think he realized the need for government, no matterwhat, but he was trying to make the point that newspapers areessential to SELF-government by the people and their electedrepresentatives.

Near the end of his life, he wrote, “"The onlysecurity of all is in a free press.”Jefferson had a way of writing things that remain true, andprovide useful instruction to us, more than two centuries later. Healso wrote, “[A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind ofstanding army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth orto what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the paperswhatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass ofthe people who have no means of distinguishing the false fromthe true paragraphs of a newspaper."That may sound familiar to some of you. I am obliged to tell youthat when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States,he became very frustrated with the press, and said things like this:“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.

Truthitself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”After he left office, Jefferson reverted to his earlier opinions.Your nation’s official long-term vision, written more than adecade ago, says this: “Freedom of the press must be guaranteedin law and practice.” That vision called for a Freedom ofInformation Act, and rightly so. Without laws that give the pressaccess to government records, the press is like a watchdog that isplaced on a short leash. Yes, sometimes watchdogs bark whennothing threatens, and that can be irritating, especially to thepeople being barked at. But a little extraneous barking is a smallprice to pay for having a watchdog. And a watchdog on a shortleash can’t do a very good job, so it’s more inclined to bark.I salute those news media in Botswana who have rightly beenwatchdogs of the government, protecting the public interest.They need the freedom and the tools to do the job they aresupposed to do: hold officials, ministries and institutionsaccountable for their performance and keep the people informedso they are prepared to make the choices they are called upon tomake in a democratic republic.Other countries have recognized this, many for a long time.

Oneof the more recent laws was passed in the United Kingdom, and ithelped lead to the recent change in government. Using the law, areporter researched the spending by the offices of members ofParliament and found that much taxpayer money was going toPMs’ private benefit. That led to the resignation of the speaker ofthe House of Commons and finally to the defeat of his LabourParty in the recent election.My country has had a Freedom of Information Act since 1966, andit was recently revised to make it more effective.

It has beencrucial in helping journalists produce hundreds of stories that heldgovernment accountable and led to changes in policy, regulationsor laws. In my home state of Kentucky, the newspaper for which Iworked 26 years, The Courier-Journal, used the Act to show howcoal companies were falsifying air samples and as a probableresult more miners were being stricken with black-lung disease.Each of our 50 states has similar laws, most of which also requirethat meetings of public agencies be open to the public.In speaking to newspaper staffs in Gaborone over the last twodays, one of the things I have emphasized is the importance offacts over opinion. The great value of a Freedom of InformationAct is that it gives access to records, which are usually muchbetter documentation of facts than statements by individuals,which are often laced with opinion, or even primarily or totallyopinion.

To illustrate the importance of records: In my home state ofKentucky, we don’t have a state law titled “Freedom ofInformation Act.” It has a simpler name, the Open Records Act.Just like our national Act, it has several exceptions, such as tradesecrets, preliminary drafts, unwarranted invasion of personalprivacy, and so on, and sometimes the courts have to decide whatthose exceptions really mean. But our law has a wonderfulprovision that guides the courts, and our attorney general, whohas the first crack at answering such questions. The law makes adeclaration of basic policy: “Free and open examination of publicrecords is in the public interest and the exceptions … shall bestrictly construed, even though such examination may causeinconvenience or embarrassment to public officials or others.”

That reference to the convenience and image of public officials isquite appropriate, because in my experience the greatestunderlying resistance to release of public records comes from thepersonal feelings of the people who have the records, notconcerns about procedure and policy. Too often, public officialsthink of their offices their private possessions and forget that theyonly those offices in trust for the public. And often they not onlyresist releasing records, they lead the campaigns against moreopenness and transparency in government.

In nations around the world, journalists usually lead thecampaigns for freedom of information, because they have a stakein the issue almost every day. But they hold that stake only onbehalf of the people and their interests. Unfortunately, the peopleoften do not appreciate the vital role of the press, and journalistsoften need to remind them of it. We especially need to do thatwhen we are asking for passage of laws like a Freedom ofInformation Act.Georges Clemenceau, the French journalist and prime minister,once said “War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.”

Government information is too important to entrust to thegovernment. And that is especially true in a country wheregovernment controls 80 percent of the economy. No governmentin the world is immune to corruption, and with this governmentso intertwined with the economy, Botswana seems to have morethan the usual need for a Freedom of Information Act.Some may think that the current political turmoil in Botswanameans that the current Parliament would never pass a Freedomof Information Act, especially since the news media have madethe Media Practitioners Act largely a dead letter.Yes, the current situation does pose challenges, but it also createsopportunities.

Newspapers’ coverage of the situation appears tohave increased newspaper circulation, heightened interest inpolitics and government. And while members of the ruling partyhave criticized newspaper coverage, citizens can see that thecoverage is coming from not just one or two newspapers – thatsomething big is really going on, at least in relative terms for acountry that has had one of the most stable political systems inAfrica. Hopefully, all this has made Batswana more aware of thevalue of newspapers and the need to hold public officialsaccountable – and not just at the ballot box, which comes onlyevery five years.

It seems like a good opportunity for thejournalists of Botswana need to tell the country that they woulddo a much better job if they had access to government records.There are signs that the public is growing increasingly aware ofthe value of the press to Botswanan society. In reaction topassage of the Media Practitioners Act and other actions , theCoalition for Freedom of Expression was formed, and last year’slocal observance of World Press Freedom Day drew a recordcrowd. HOW ABOUT THIS YEAR?And I am also happy to report that when you search Google forthe phrase “freedom of information act” the second pertinentsource that comes up is the FOI page of the Botswana MediaConsultative Council.

That shows that the advocates of thismeasure are doing a good job telling the world about the issue. Ihope they have not been too bashful about telling Batswanaabout it.The public needs to realize that a Freedom of Information Act isnot just for journalists. It’s for the entire public, and I don’t thinkjournalists should seek any special rights under it.In my country the major users of the Freedom Information Act arenot journalists, but regular citizens and interest groups.Forexample, the Environmental Working Group has collected datafrom the Agriculture Department about farm subsidies, processedit so it is more easily searchable, and created an online databasein which anyone with a computer can look up the subsidypayments by state, by county and even by individual.

Public support for a Freedom of Information Act will increase oncethe public knows that it means information for THEM, not just forjournalists, whose popularity rises and falls and is never thatgreat.And we have to be careful not to oversell, not to overstate ourcase. There ARE risks in making some government informationpublic, but those have been addressed in other nations byexceptions to the law like those I mentioned earlier. The risks areknown, and can be limited.

The benefits are huge, andincalculable. Government records are a treasure chest ofinformation and knowledge, waiting to be opened, and we don’treally know what we will find when the lock is broken.Here’s one way to think of the potential value: “There are knownknowns. These are things we know that we know. There areknown unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we knowwe don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns.

There arethings we don't know we don't know.”If that quote sounds familiar to you, it’s because an Americandefense secretary uttered it as he discussed national security andintelligence. His name was Donald Rumsfeld, and he is best knownfor making a mess of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But long before hewas a defense secretary who had to keep secrets, he was acongressman.

He passed one big bill. He named it the Freedom ofInformation Act.Yes, our basic law opening federal government records wassponsored by a man who later had to keep secrets, andapparently liked keeping them. That goes to show that yourassumptions about allies and enemies in the fight for freedom ofinformation may be incorrect. People can surprise you, especiallyat a time of political turmoil, so I urge you to not write anyone off.The arguments for a Freedom of Information Act in Botswana arenot just about information. They are also about the interests ofthe nation as a whole.

Six years ago, The Economist magazine (which calls itself anewspaper) called this country “Africa’s prize democracy.” I don’tthink they would write that headline today. The magazine’s lateststory on Botswana, more than six months ago, said he had earned“a reputation for being a disciplinarian with an authoritarianstreak, perhaps even a low regard for civil liberties.”

Since then,the political turmoil has only increased, and Botswana runs therisk of being labeled a repressive regime, something that wouldnot be good for tourism and investment. A Freedom ofInformation Act would demonstrate that the government istransparent and respectful of citizens’ rights.

Finally, as someone whose job it is to help rural people throughjournalism, I am especially concerned about the efforts of somepeople to drum up opposition to press freedom in the rural areasof this country. Those areas are so thinly populated, and have sofew English speakers, that they are poorly served by print mediaand rely largely on state-run television for news. I wouldencourage newspapers in this capital city to make a strongereffort to serve the rural areas, and perhaps even start a Setswanalanguagepaper.

Remember that Thomas Jefferson quotation I started with? Well,right after what he said about newspapers and government, headded, “But I should mean that every man should receive thosepapers and be capable of reading them.” Rural Botswana needsmore newspapers.

 

Al Cross is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism andCommunity Issues at the University of Kentucky. He took the jobin 2004 after 26 years at The Courier-Journal, the last 15½ aspolitical writer, and still writes a column for the Louisville paper.He was president of the Society of Professional Journalists in2001-02 

 

- May 26, 2010 Speech by Al Cross

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Source: www.misa.org (received via Email Alter on 27.05.2010)