Comment

The rise of gatekeeping within public service

State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes is correct that the conduct revealed by a report into the use of external security consultants by government agencies is an affront to democracy.

Hughes is also right that action is required to remedy the situation.

However, it is imperative that part of the response should involve changes to the way in which government agencies deal with the media.

When I was in the Press Gallery, we used to ring public servants directly when we were writing stories about new legislation or policy changes. We could call and speak to the official working on the issue. We could ask as many questions as we wanted, and obtain all the information we needed to write an informed article.

By contrast, today, journalists dealing with government agencies are required to deal with the agency’s media people. We have to submit questions in writing, and are not permitted to speak to the people who have the most detailed knowledge of the issue.

Invariably the response provided by the agency is in writing, very short, very bland and – in most instances – unusable in the story.

This is because media staff are focused on risk and reputation.

They and other government agency employees appear to regard the media as an enemy or a problem to be managed. All too often, the goal of media liaison staff seems to be to keep as much information as possible from journalists.

As with the attitudes revealed in the report commissioned by the State Services Commission, this viewpoint is a fundamental misunderstanding of democracy and of the media’s pivotal role in upholding our constitutional structure.

The three pillars of our system of government are the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The doctrine of the separation of powers developed to explain the requirement for each branch to be separate and independent, so that each would be a check on the others and no single branch would have arbitrary or total control.

Within this structure, the media is commonly referred to as the “Fourth Estate” to explain its inherent and crucial role. The press is a guardian of the public interest and a safeguard against arbitrary power.

The functions of the media in our society include –

Serving as the watchdog of the public by holding government, local authorities, commercial entities and others to account

Protecting freedom of expression

Acting as a bulwark against injustice by investigating and reporting on illegalities and injustices

Disseminating information

Providing debating forums – most notably, during election campaigns; and

Education - including about new laws and policies, as well as scientific or technological developments.

When I was a journalist, public servants understood this, and that is why they saw it as part of their role to provide information to and to educate the media.

The fact that government agencies now have large numbers of public relations and media personnel and treat reporters as the enemy is in fact an erosion of our constitutional safeguards.

In addition to the difficulty journalists experience in obtaining information and comment from government agencies, this suspicious viewpoint is demonstrated by the way in which government agencies deal with Official Information Act requests.

The Official Information Act was passed in 1982 to repeal the Official Secrets Act 1951 and to make official information more freely available. The new focus on disclosure rather than confidentiality was epitomised by the name change from “official secrets” to “official information”.

However, in recent decades, government agencies and successive governments have adopted an increasingly defensive and hostile attitude to OIA requests. The law requires information to be provided “as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days”.

In practice, however, 20 working days is commonly used as the timeframe, delaying the release of information and thwarting the purpose of the law.

Hughes has issued new Model Standards governing information gathering for public servants as part of his response to the external security consultants’ report.

Both the Government and the State Services Commission should also take action to remedy the suspicious and obstructive attitude of government agencies to the media.

This should include Ministers making it plain that the Official Information Act is to be complied with – both in relation to timeframes and in respect of substantive responses.

Public relations people and media personnel should no longer be allowed to control agencies’ responses to journalists.

Ministers and chief executives should set the tone by emphasising that the media is a crucial part of our constitutional structure. The automatic response of obstructing the media should be replaced with an attitude founded on understanding of the crucial watchdog role of the press.

United States President Thomas Jefferson as long ago as 1787 explained the importance of the media by stating that, were it left to him to decide whether his country should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

In more recent times, former The Washington Post publisher, Katharine Graham, spoke repeatedly about the important role of the media. The Washington Post’s catchline is “Democracy dies in darkness.”

Our public servants appear to have forgotten that the media is one of the flames that keeps that darkness at bay.

*Catriona MacLennan is a barrister and former political journalist.