Reasons for the poor provision of information by the government: public opinion
| Published date | 18 July 2016 |
| Pages | 185-205 |
| Date | 18 July 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-03-2015-0013 |
| Author | Johanna Gunnlaugsdottir |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Reasons for the poor provision of
information by the government:
public opinion
Johanna Gunnlaugsdottir
Department of Information Science, University of Iceland,
Reykjavik, Iceland
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present, on the one hand, the ndings of a survey conducted
during 2012 in Iceland and, on the other hand, the results of interviews held in 2015 concerning why it
was felt that the authorities withheld information either about subjects of general public interest or
about public expenditures.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey questionnaire was sent in March 2012 to almost 2,000
Icelanders randomly selected from the National Registry. The response rate was almost 67 per cent. As
to the interviews held in 2015, these were with individuals who were known to understand well the
government’s actions, both as to provision of information to the public and the opposite, suppression of
information. The interviewees were chosen purposively. The survey was modelled on other research
and resources concerning open public information and other research that had examined trust towards
public authorities and the inuence of freedom of information acts on government information
practices.
Findings – The research revealed that both participants in the questionnaire survey and the six
interviewees in the later study felt that information was kept secret for a variety of reasons. Most felt
that information was kept under wraps by the government, both about subjects of general public
interest or about public expenditures, and that both transparency and traceability were less than
sufcient in the public administration of Iceland.
Practical implications – The results could be of value to public authorities who want to improve the
provision of information and practices according to the freedom of information act. They could also
bring diverse and valuable opportunities to the profession of records managers as to documentation and
registration, as well as others who practice information management.
Originality/value – The survey adds valuable information and fulls a need for a better
understanding of why public authorities suppress the provision of information in Iceland. Although the
research cited was limited to Iceland, the ndings may be of value also to public authorities and
researchers in the Western World, Australia and New Zealand to give a few examples where the culture
and the practice of government may not be that different, as well as in other countries. The two studies
can, therefore, lay the foundation for further research into the eld.
Keywords Transparency, Iceland, Open data, Freedom of information act,
Information and records management, Trust in public authorities
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Informing the public is an important factor in the operation of any government. In recent
years, both the law and social discussion have evolved around demands for increased
and improved access to information that is in the hands of the authorities. Those who
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
Poor provision
of information
185
Received 24 March 2015
Revised 1 December 2015
2 February 2016
Accepted 4 February 2016
RecordsManagement Journal
Vol.26 No. 2, 2016
pp.185-205
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/RMJ-03-2015-0013
follow the news detect that there is an increasing demand that public authorities provide
information and access on their own initiative regarding relevant matters based on the
law.
The purpose of this article is, on the one hand, to present the results of the second
part of a survey that was carried out in Iceland in March 2012 about public opinion
on government provision of information and, on the other hand, to report the results
of an interview study that was carried out in 2015 and evolved from the survey.
The objective of the survey from 2012 was to examine public opinion regarding
the provision of information by the authorities concerning public interests and
government expenditures and whether and why the respondents felt that the
authorities suppressed such information. The initial “hypothesis” was that the
general public was of the opinion that information resting with public authorities
was being kept secret to some extent. The survey was intended to reveal the extent
of this believed secrecy and the believed reasons why pertinent information of
relevance to the general public was being kept under lid. The objective of the
interviews in 2015 was to nd out what the six chosen, unbiased and knowledgeable
parties felt were the reasons why the authorities held information from the public,
information that the public had a right to, and whether they felt that the situation
had become worse or had improved in the preceding four years.
The results of the rst part of the survey from 2012, that is the ndings obtained from
the answers to the closed questions, have already been published (Gunnlaugsdottir,
2015). Here, the results based on the survey’s open-ended questions are presented.
Whether the government suppressed specic information consciously or merely as the
result of oversight is outside the frame of this research. Furthermore, as international
readers may not be familiar with Icelandic political institutions, politics and public
administration, it should be noted that the democratic institutions, the freedom of the
press and the legal framework are comparable in Iceland to those elsewhere in the
Western world (Gunnlaugsdottir, 2015).
The incentive for this research work grew from the author’s collection of articles
gleaned from newspaper publications in Iceland intended for the general public over the
past two decades on access of citizens to information and their right to such information
according to the law. The research is a part of an interdisciplinary project in the School
of Social Science at the University of Iceland: “Political Legitimacy in Trying Times: A
Study of Power of Democracy in Iceland”.
The legislation that concerns documents and information regarding registration,
handling of cases, dissemination of information and the legal duty to provide
information is the Public Archives, Act no. 77/2014; the Administration Act no. 37/1993;
legislation on Data Protection and Handling of Personal Information, Act no. 77/2000;
and the Information Act no. 140/2012. This legislation has been under considerable
revision during the past two decades. The new report from the Open Data Barometer
(World Wide Web Foundation, 2015) further became the inspiration for the interviews
with the six selected participants in 2015.
This article is divided into several sections, the rst of which presents the
background to the survey, followed by discussion of the reasons for the research and the
methodology used. The results are presented in three separate sections, followed by a
discussion and conclusions.
RMJ
26,2
186
To continue reading
Request your trial