In order for citizens of a country to benefit from viable access to information, a number of prerequisites must be in place. These requirements, cited in a new study which was recently launched in TCD, include an independent judiciary, effective systems of mass communication and freedom of the press. The authors of this international study are Professor Robert Martin of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and Estelle Feldman, a research associate at TCD's law school and a former director of TCD's MBA programme. "If a state is engaged in domestic or foreign conflict, state security can be used as a basis for denying access to information," they observe. "A national state of emergency can often be used to set aside existing laws guaranteeing access."
The study, entitled Access to Information in Developing Countries, was prepared for Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based non-governmental organisation committed to fighting corruption - which, TI argues, undermines good government, distorts public policy, harms private sector development and particularly hurts the poor. What Martin and Feldman call "access to information" is an essential element of democratic government, they argue. They define the term as "a short way of stating the totality of seeking and receiving information - the right of individuals to be informed about the activities of their state, past, present and future". However, the pair highlight the need to differentiate between real information, i.e. that which is useful and practical, and information that is simply government propaganda. They cite the case of the Malaysian government, which makes available huge amounts of information yet has suppressed free expression. Access to information also presumes high levels of literacy in the population, the study notes. People need access to radio, television and telephone. Libraries and librarians, too, can make huge contributions to the provision of genuinely free access to information.
However, figures from the United Nations Development Programme show that almost one billion people in the world are illiterate and that people in developing countries have only minimal access to telecommunications. Indeed, the gap between rich and poor countries is increasing.
"Information is crucial in enabling people to make sound decisions about their lives," Martin and Feldman say. "With access to information, poor people can begin to organise themselves for collective action to influence the decisions affecting their lives." Although the study focuses on the developing world, it contains clear messages for the rest of us to ensure that we maintain and develop infrastructure supporting information access at home - and that we increase our aid to the developing world, which is lagging so far behind.
