They are truths so fundamental and durable they have lasted through centuries, become axiomatic, evolved even into cliché too easily taken for granted.

Knowledge is power. The truth shall set you free. An informed citizenry is the bulwark of democracy.

What a timely and important exercise it was, then, for Star reporters to describe this past weekend the roadblocks they’ve encountered trying to obtain information vital to an informed understanding of public policy, the facts of important debates, and the ways in which power is wielded.

Star journalists seeking information about such issues as carding of racial minorities by police, mercury pollution that poisoned First Nations communities at Grassy Narrows, or the cost of the Scarborough subway extension have faced unreasonable stalling and – perhaps most important – significant cost to obtain information for which the public had paid. Some have produced bills running to tens of thousands of dollars.

Such costs are very nearly prohibitive for media outlets now dealing with existential economic pressures. They are certainly so for activist groups or private citizens hoping to inform themselves and the people they represent and to hold public agencies to account.

As City Hall reporter Jennifer Pagliaro aptly put it, “I am left with the question of whether this system is one set up to legislate secrecy. If so, it is operating just fine.” Investigative reporter Rob Cribb told of a wait of three years – and counting – for information from the RCMP.

Brian Beamish, Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner, told the Star’s Sabrina Nanji that “the public expects the government to be accountable and part of that accountability is being able to see the information that’s in the hands of the government.”

Journalists know their first obligation is to the truth, their first loyalty to citizens, that the essence of their line of work is the discipline of verification in order to independently monitor power.

To provide citizens with the reporting they need to be free and informed, journalists must have access to information without unreasonable cost and delay.

The freedom-of-information system, as it stands, is too slow, too expensive and needs to be fixed.

As American jurist Louis D. Brandeis famously said, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”