Freedom of Information. What Were They Thinking?

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aut.relation.endpage33
aut.relation.issue8en_NZ
aut.relation.journalBack Story: Journal of New Zealand Art, Media & Design Historyen_NZ
aut.relation.pages14
aut.relation.startpage19
aut.researcherHutcheson, Catherine
dc.contributor.authorTreadwell, Gen_NZ
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-30T23:49:35Z
dc.date.available2021-11-30T23:49:35Z
dc.date.copyright2020en_NZ
dc.date.issued2020en_NZ
dc.description.abstract“The right to know is the right to live.” Aruna Roy (1946— ), Indian social activist Ongoing dissatisfaction among information requesters, including journalists, has discredited the early and partially heroic narratives of the Aotearoa New Zealand freedom-of-information (FOI) regime. The revolutionary and celebrated Official Information Act 1982 (OIA 1982) has remained virtually unchanged since its inception, despite ongoing calls for reform. This article examines why the OIA 1982 was so transformative, calling on the literature and two thematic analyses of historic parliamentary debates as it explores the thinking of the time and historicises the moment lawmakers cemented in statute notions of an open society. All media rely on this law, and the idea of FOI behind it, to be able to flourish, even if some are more acutely aware of that than others. All media practitioners, from journalists to filmmakers, benefit from the informed social discourse that results from FOI. To explore its failings in Aotearoa New Zealand today and, indeed, to start to imagine remedies, this research argues an important first step is to better understand the thinking of the time.
dc.identifier.citationBack Story Journal of New Zealand Art, Media & Design History, (8), 19-35. https://doi.org/10.24135/backstory.vi8.55
dc.identifier.doi10.24135/backstory.vi8.55
dc.identifier.issn2703-1713en_NZ
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/14762
dc.publisherSchools of Art & Design, Communication Studies, and Business, AUT
dc.relation.urihttps://ojs.aut.ac.nz/back-story/article/view/55
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccessen_NZ
dc.subjectTransparency; Freedom of information; The public right to know; Official Secrets Act 1951; Official Information Act 1982; Aotearoa New Zealand
dc.titleFreedom of Information. What Were They Thinking?en_NZ
dc.typeJournal Article
pubs.elements-id430016
pubs.organisational-data/AUT
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies/School of Communication Studies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/PBRF/PBRF Design and Creative Technologies/PBRF Communication Studies
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