Professor David Farrell:

I would generally argue that a culture of open government is what we need to aim for. The freedom of information legislation that is finally going through the books, after a lot of delay and prevarication, is only a very first and very early step down that road. We need to move from the notion that freedom of information is something one replies to, which is a reactive process, to something that is totally proactive. We should have as open a set of government as possible. There will be areas of limitation and security matters would be the obvious one. That aside, there is no reason the citizens of this country should not be given total access to learn who is talking to Government, why they are talking to Government, how regularly they are talking to Government and matters of that kind.