SOUTH AFRICA: Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly has called for a "grown-up debate" on Freedom of Information (FoI), saying much criticism of transparency legislation was based on anecdote rather than fact.
In Pretoria yesterday, where she is offering advice to local organisations on the possible establishment of an FoI office for South Africa, she said Ireland could learn from the country's "very liberal and wide-ranging" legislation in the area.
"I think it's probably time now for people to look afresh at the FoI situation [ in Ireland] and see whether it can be improved. A lot of criticism is based on anecdote. I would like to see a critical analysis of the impact of FoI on public administration because . . . I think it has been a force for the good. It is continuing to produce results and it has led to more openness in Irish society."
Asked for her views on the controversial Privacy Bill, recently published by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, Ms O'Reilly said she didn't believe "the political system" would allow the proposed law to be used by wealthy litigants to cover up wrongdoing.
She also remarked that she had not been consulted on the Bill, "but I would not necessarily have expected to be consulted".
"I have heard the arguments that the NUJ [ National Union of Journalists] and journalists have made. Equally, I have witnessed gross intrusions of privacy by the media in recent years, albeit confined to a small group.
"If I am being truly honest, I won't be able to give an answer to that [ the appropriateness of the Bill] until we see (a) what the final Bill looks like, and (b), how it actually looks in practice.
"I know there are concerns that it is going to be used by people who have sufficient money to arm themselves with expensive lawyers and go to court to protect things that shouldn't be protected. I don't believe that is the intent, either stated or implied, of the Bill, and I think that if that were to happen, I genuinely believe that the political system would be very alive to that, and I don't think it would be allowed to happen.
"The media has a vested interest as well. They are a commercial body, so obviously it is understandable that they don't want to be impeded in doing things that can hurt their market share. Equally, they have expressed very valid concerns because, obviously, a lot of the greatest scandals that have been discovered in Irish life over the last 10-15 years have been unearthed by the media, so you would not want anything in place that would disturb that."
Ms O'Reilly, who last visited South Africa as a journalist covering apartheid in 1985, is in the country this week on the invitation of the Open Democracy Advice Centre, a legal group campaigning for the establishment of an FoI office in the country.
While it has extensive FoI legislation, it has no statutory mediating body from which citizens can seek redress, meaning the only option available is going through the courts.