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Media responsible for meaningful FOIA By Irena Valova The public will rely on its representatives in the press for access to public information It was a long journey from the proposal of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the Czech Republic to its passage. Finally we have it, and we can ask some fundamental questions: Will the citizens use it? Will the people seek information concerning municipal budgets? Will they ask every day for Czech National Bank documents to determine whether it is making decisions in their best interests? Will parents ask about the state school director's new appointments? No, they will not, the politicians argue. The bill was not necessary. Look at Hungary, where the national ombudsman had to call on people to pose such questions to the state administration. No, they will not, journalists argue. But the bill will encourage people to deal with state institutions as partners; it will increase people's self-confidence; it will increase the people's confidence in the state that uses the taxpayers' money in their name. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong. With some exceptions, we should not expect a huge information run on the state administration starting in 2000, when the law goes into effect. It is not citizens' everyday job to seek information on state or municipal decision-making processes. But it is the people's right to know, which is equal to the right to live. And the tragedy of the last 2,000 years is that this natural right to know has been open to debate from time to time in the United States, Europe or Asia, while there is no debate on the right to live. The reason is clear: Information is an instrument of political and economic power. Politicians seem to know this, otherwise they would not have guarded against free access to information for so long. I believe that is a fair thing to say. With some exceptions, we should not expect a huge increase in people's self-confidence and people's confidence in state or municipal administrations. It is a long, two-sided process that cannot be solved by a law, by one draft, by one bill. But this law starts the process. So who is the most important player in this game, if not people, if not citizens? It is a special kind of citizen -- a journalist. This should also be fair to say, although both sides -- politicians and journalists -- are quiet about this fact. Especially the politicians, and especially Czech politicians, notoriously do not want to hear that journalists are natural representatives of the people even though they were not elected. Anyone who says this always-discussed truth about journalists in democracy is immediately marked as a leftist and as one who wants to rule the world. To admire a free and independent media as the fourth estate, whose existence is essential for democracy and whose duty is to inform about the inner processes of society, it is necessary to say that a freedom of information law is a big political step forward for the Czech Republic. The law should help to make the media's job easier. From this point of view, the voting on the Freedom of Information Act showed that we have a majority of wise politicians who understand what democracy is. For the fourth estate, the Freedom of Information Act is a challenge. The media will use it in the name of the public, in the name of citizens -- they should also use it for the public, for citizens, which means not warring with politicians, but offering more analysis, using more responsibility in editorial decision-making processes, along with more courage, more self-control, more correctness and more accuracy. From this point of view, the Freedom of Information Act may cause hard times for journalists, which is good. From both points of view, it will make our democracy more sensible, meaningful and up to Western standards. --The writer is director of the Syndicate of Journalists of the Czech Republic |
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The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.