Right to Know? Freedom of Information in Britain
| Author | Ben Worthy |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/20419058211001002 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
32 POLITICAL INSIGHT • MARCH 2021
Freedom of Information (FOI) isn’t
very popular with politicians, to
put it mildly. Lyndon B. Johnson
swore about it. Tony Blair felt
that passing it was one of his two biggest
mistakes (fox hunting with dogs, before
you ask). David Cameron claimed it was
‘furring up the arteries’ of government,
whatever that means. Britain has now had
a FOI law for two decades, which has been
in force since January 2005. What has it
done to cause such discomfort and how
well has it actually worked?
Freedom of information laws are
designed to allow the public access to
information as a legal right, subject to
certain caveats and limitations. The rise
of Freedom of Information, or ‘Right to
Right to Know?
Freedom of
Information in
Britain
Two decades on from the introduction of Freedom of Information
legislation in Britain, Ben Worthy explores the successes – and
challenges – of the Act politicians love to hate.
Information’ as it’s more often called, has
been one of the big democratic success
stories of the late 20th century. The idea
of governments being open goes back
far in history, with various edicts and
strictures on explaining to the people
present in Ancient China and India. An
actual Freedom of the Printing Press law
appeared (briefly) in Sweden in 1766.
However, it wasn’t until 1966 that a FOI
bill was forced on Lyndon B. Johnson to
create the famous American law (pushed
in part by a young Congressman named
Donald Rumsfeld). Laws then spread at a
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