Government Secrecy in the Era of Openness: An ACARM Symposium <Insert Picture Here> Small World: Orwellianism, Openess & Onliness Government Secrecy in the Era of Openness: An ACARM Symposium Room G22/26, Senate House, University of London 19th June 2015

Government Secrecy - Disclosure UN Declaration on Human Rights (Art. 19) New Public Management & Sunshine Legislation - Openess (Good Governance as condition of loans by multilaterals) Information Age & Onliness (Web 2.0, Social Media and Mobile) Open Government Partnership

Government Secrecy - Privacy Orwellianism/ State Surveillance (E-FOIA , Patriot Act/USA Freedom Act, Prism, TIA) Privacy (Not the same as ‘Secret’) Disclosure Advocates (Wikileaks, ACLU) Public Interest (Not the same as ‘Personal’ Interest)

Freedom of Information Currently on the law books of over one hundred and three (103) states, this type of legislation operates under the following principles: Freedom of information as a legal and enforceable right. There should be a presumption in favor of disclosure and Governments should promote a culture of openness. The right of access to information may be subject to limited exemptions but these should be narrowly drawn. Government should maintain and preserve records. In principle, decisions to refuse access to records and information should be subject to independent review

FOI in the CARICOM Region Of the 20 Caribbean countries, 8 have FOI laws (Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Vincent, Antigua, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Guyana), 5 have drafted Bills (the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts, St. Lucia) and 7 have no laws at all (Montserrat, Dominica, Suriname, Haiti, Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands); Freedom of Information Act (1998) - Belize Freedom of Information Act (1999) - Trinidad & Tobago Access to Information Act (2002) – Jamaica Freedom of Information Act (2003) - St. Vincent & the Grenadines Freedom of Information Act (2004) – Antigua & Barbuda Freedom of Information Act (2007) – Cayman Islands Public Access to Information Act (2010) – Bermuda

Status of FOIA & Related Laws in the Caribbean COUNTRY   FOI LAW COMPLIANCE & APPEALS LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK Privacy/Data Protection Act Whistleblower Act Official Secrets 1. Belize FOIAct, 1994/2000 Ombudsman _____ ______ 2. Trinidad & Tobago FOI 1999 Data Protection Act, 2011 3. Jamaica ATI Act, 2002 Appeal Tribunal Protected Disclosure Act, 2010 4. St Vincent FOI Act, 2003 High Court  Privacy Act, 2003 5. Antigua FOI Act, 2004 IC (appt’ed) 6. Cayman Islands FOI Act, 2007 Data Protection Bill Working Group 7. Bermuda Public ATI Act, 2010 IC ( to be appt’ed) 8. Guyana ATI Act, 2011 9. Bahamas FOI Bill, 2012 Data Protection Act, 2007 10. Barbados FOI Bill, 2008 Data Protection Act, 2005 11. Grenada FOI Bill 12. St Kitts FO Bill, 2006 Privacy and Personal Data Protection Bill, 2012 13. St Lucia Privacy and Data Protection Bill, 2007 Prepared by: Aylair Livingstone 2/13/2015

How will these types of legislation affect Records Management?

Support for FOIA - Maintaining Total Quality RM The Records Unit must ensure: Reliability (i.e. continuous and regular operations); Integrity (i.e. control measures for monitoring, authentication, authorized destruction and security); Compliance (i.e. all requirements arising from current business, the environment etc); Comprehensiveness (i.e. all records resulting from business activities are given complete coverage); Systematic (i.e. there must be a structured and organic process created, maintained and managed to support the RM programme).

n. 1. The careful editing (of a document), esp n. 1. The careful editing (of a document), esp. to remove confidential references or offensive material. 2. A revised or edited document. – redact, vb. – redactional, adj. Black’s Law Dictionary, Seventh Edition (West Group, 1999) Redaction

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. -- George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

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