Transparency, Information

and Communication
Technology, and the Media
Too much information may mean less
communication.

• Reliable, timely, and relevant information is essential for good

governance and effective public administration. Citizens need it to
get an accurate picture of what their government is doing, and
the government needs it to formulate and implement policies.
• Both sides face the challenge to pick out the information they
need from the deluge that is made readily available through
information and communication technology (ICT) – particularly
the internet.
ICT has had a major impact on all four dimensions of
governance – transparency, accountability, the rule
of law, and participation – in the following ways:
1. Transparency is greatly expanded by information and
communication tools. For example, the widespread
availability of mobile phones has greatly increased access
to public and private information, and to financial
services. ICT enables more timely and comprehensive
news coverage, but also presents new challenges such as
cyber-attacks from rogue individuals and governments,
amplification of extreme partisan views, and clouding the
distinction between real facts and “alternative facts”, real
news and “fake news”.
2. Accountability, both internal within the government and
“social accountability”, is helped by the new channels of
contestability and complaint made possible by ICT. For
example, individual citizens with phone cameras, as well
as social media, increasingly help to publicize arbitrary
actions by public officials and shed light on administrative
failures.
3. The rule of law is strengthened by the new tools, as
well. Closed circuit TV, drones, and other forms of
electronic surveillance help law enforcement and provide
evidence for the judiciary (at some cost to privacy). ICT is
also a powerful tool to facilitate compliance with the rules
and to combat corruption (although it can also open up
new corruption vistas for those who can manipulate the
technology to their advantage).
4. Participation becomes an everyday reality with the new
channels of communication and feedback, which have
also vastly expanded opportunities for “voice” to
previously isolated and excluded groups in society.
However, information technology has also contributed to
aggravating inequality – the so-called digital divide.
5. Efficiency. ICT has led to a major productivity boost in
manufacturing. The impact of ICT on services, including
public services, has been much lower. Indeed, productivity
in public services that depend on easy-flowing personal
contact may have been diminished by overuse of
information technology.
6. Effectiveness. ICT enables data sharing across
organizations, faster, and more accurate response, better
support to remote areas, and quicker feedback to
managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. The new
challenges include retaining enough capable staff to stay
abreast of the rapidly evolving technologies, potential
conflicts with public sector rules and standards, and the
widening gap between technically savvy citizens and
those less-proficient.
TRANSPARENCY: BENEFITS AND
LIMITS
• Transparency means providing reliable, relevant, and
timely information in forms comprehensible to those who
need it. Transparency is crucial for an informed
executive, legislature, judiciary, and citizens at large. It
requires the information to be made available to all
parties in usable form – with clear and public regulatory
and policy-making processes.
TRANSPARENCY: BENEFITS AND
LIMITS
• Recalling that transparency, like the other dimensions of
governance, is not absolute, there is a legitimate need
for confidentiality, to protect privacy, ongoing
investigations, national security and frank deliberations.
In democracies, the burden of proof must be on those
who would keep information confidential, not on those
who would want to share it with the public, but there are
areas where transparency must be limited.
 TRANSPARENCY: BENEFITS AND
LIMITS
• Access to information collected by government on sensitive personal and
business information (on vital statistics, health, income, taxes, education,
etc.) should be strictly limited to authorized users on a need-to-know basis;
• data on ongoing investigations must be confidential so as to protect
informants and not tip off targets or jeopardize eventual legal proceedings;
• sensitive data on national security should remain secret to prevent their
use by actual or potential enemies;
• and frank internal debate is hampered if policy deliberations are not kept
confidential.
Communicating Information

• Government holds masses of sensitive personal and

business information, and has a monopoly of certain
categories of data such as the census, law enforcement,
and a range of legal matters.
Communicating Information

• Public communication makes visible the performance of

all agencies, and tries to address the unequal access to
information by different population groups.
• Government can enhance citizen voice by providing
accurate and timely information mandated by law,
including decisions, rules, and regulations that affect
individuals and groups.
Different categories of information
to be provided to the public include:
• public include: information about government as a
holder of data – what records are maintained and how
their accuracy is ensured;
• information about government as a business – how
much the government spends, on what, why, and with
what results;
Different categories of information
to be provided to the public include:
• information about government as a service provider –
what services are available, at what price and quality,
and how they are to be provided;
• and information about government as policymaker – how
are major decisions made, on what evidence they are
based, and what results and impact are expected.
Professionalization in
Communication
• At all levels of government, transparency is critically
affected by the existence and effectiveness of
communications staff.
• Evidence suggests that much depends on how the
communications staff perceive transparency initiatives
and how proactive they are in implementing them.
Professionalization in
Communication
• There is a need in every major government agency for
professional public information officers, with four major
functions:
1. disseminate reliable information to the public;
2. develop a climate of trust between the government and
the public through openness and honesty in all
communications and courteous treatment of all citizens;
Professionalization in
Communication
3. provide guidance and training in communication skills
to concerned government officials; and
4. continuously monitor public opinion and disseminate
the findings within the government.
CITIZEN ACCESS TO INFORMATION:
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAWS
• The right of citizens to access information from
government bodies on request includes personal
information about themselves; nonpersonal information
that does not endanger national security, law
enforcement, privacy of others, or other specified public
interest; and information disseminated by the
government on its own initiative.
CITIZEN ACCESS TO INFORMATION:
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAWS
• Given the mass of information potentially available, it is
difficult for the citizen to know which documents to
request and the government itself has a public
communication responsibility to convey the relevant
information. This is particularly true in developing
countries, with their larger numbers of poor and less
literate persons.
CITIZEN ACCESS TO INFORMATION:
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAWS
• The U.S. FOI Act of 1966 was the first modern legislation
enacted, followed by similar legislation in Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand in the early 1980s.

• Case studies - Pg. 569-571

The Situation in Developing
Countries
• Not so in many developing countries. The considerable
effort needed to implement FOI (Freedom of Information)
legislation effectively and to process requests promptly
has stretched the already limited administrative
capacity, record-keeping, and budgets of poor
developing countries.
The Situation in Developing
Countries
• This is readily understood by anyone who is familiar with
government offices in poor countries, full of jumbled files in
cardboard boxes tottering in stacks from floor to ceiling.
Inadequate preparation for the FOI law and failure to install
the complementary framework of rules and organizations
have undermined the credible enforcement of the
disclosure requirements.
• Pg. 576
Role of the Media

• A free media is essential to a free society. As Jefferson

said: “If I had to choose between a government without
newspapers or newspapers without a government, I
should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”.
Role of the Media

• The media (from the Latin for both “middle” and

“instrument”) provides an informational bridge between
the government and the citizens.
• The media is often referred to as the “fourth estate”,
additional to the three estates in which prerevolutionary
French society was divided (the clergy, the nobility, and
the commoners).
Role of the Media

• Most citizens receive their information on what is going

on in the government, and how it affects them, through
the filter of the media – as the deluge of primary
information makes it impossible for even the most
diligent citizens to keep track of all the events or take
advantage of their theoretical access to government
information.
Role of the Media

• The role of the media is that of a two-way bridge, as

government also relies on the media to a great extent to
convey its intentions and receive feedback and public
opinion on policies and programs.
Role of the Media

• The media also plays a watchdog role in investigating

misbehavior by politicians, government officials, and
business leaders – a role traditionally summarized in the
expression “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the
comfortable”. It is thus an important instrument of
democratic accountability, in addition to an instrument
of communication.
Role of the Media

• A free media, whether print, broadcast, or digital, ranks

along with an independent judiciary as one of the two
powerful counterforces to abuses by government and to
corruption in public life. Its deepest duty is to “speak
truth to power”, and let the public know the facts.
Media Responsibility and
Standards
• With freedom and independence comes responsibility. Checks and
balances on the media in democratic countries should not come
mainly – or at all – from government, but from the laws and two
other sources: self-regulation and cultivation of a critical public.
• Although commercial considerations guide private media, it must
still also respect the public interest and professional and ethical
principles. With freedom and independence comes responsibility.
Media Responsibility and
Standards
• Checks and balances on the media in democratic
countries should not come mainly – or at all – from
government, but from the laws and two other sources:
self-regulation and cultivation of a critical public.
Media Responsibility and
Standards
• Case study pg. 588
Pick one of the two following statements
and make a credible argument for it:

• “With the extensive and just-in-time information

available on the internet, it’s no longer important to read
newspapers or watch TV news.”
• “The internet is full of unverified junk and can never be
trusted as a source of information.”