STF NA MÍDIA

the British Museum of the
Cyrus Cylinder, considered
the first human rights charter.
If he has become the face
of the opposition, it should
not be forgotten that this is a
power battle within the elite.
The Green movement, which
rocked the regime in 2009, is
exhausted as a political force.
Mir Hossein Mousavi and
Mehdi Karroubi, both under
house arrest for seven months,
are urging a boycott of
next year s parliamentary
elections. But they have been
reduced to the role of observers.
The UN could usefully use
Ahmadinejad s presence to
remind him of his country s
refusal to let in a human
rights rapporteur to monitor
Iran s appalling record. It
executes two people a day.
But just as probably, Ahmadinejad
s beleaguered band
might want to apply for asylum.
They face arrest back
home.
JUSTIÇA NO EXTERIOR •
THE GUARDIAN (LO) • NEWS • 20/9/2011
Mixed results since Blair s dangerous Freedom of Information Act launched
Freedom of Information Act has achieved greater transparency but has hindered progress
in our trusting of politicians
Ian Cobain
"Freedom of Information
Act. Three harmless words. I
look at those words as I write
them, and feel like shaking
my head til it drops off. You
idiot. You naive, foolish,
irresponsible nincompoop.
There is really no description
of stupidity, no matter how
vivid, that is adequate. I quake
at the imbecility of it."
Thus Tony Blair records in
his memoirs what he believes
to have been one of his greatest
mistakes while in office:
introducing legislation intended
to shed light on government
in a manner that empowered
people.
"It is a dangerous act," he
went on, because governments
need to be able to debate
and decide issues in
confidence.
In opposition, Blair had said
he believed such an act
would "signal a new relationship
between government
and people: a relationship
which sees the public as legitimate
stakeholders in the
running of the country". As
prime minister, he saw it as a
law that was "utterly undermining
of sensible government".
The allegations facing Michael
Gove and his special
advisers suggest that within
days of the general election
they were using personal
email accounts in a way that
prevented FoI scrutiny.
But the reluctance of some in
government to comply with
the act became apparent even
before its introduction in
January 2005, almost 40 years
after a similar law was
passed in the US. The Cabinet
Office told staff to destroy
millions of emails ahead
of the act, while other government
departments doubled
the number of files they
were shredding.
There seems little doubt that
the material destroyed would
have contained information
of considerable public interest.
The act has been employed
to reveal the level of farming
subsidies paid to the UK s
wealthiest landowners, the
numbers of black and minority
ethnic students admitted
to Oxbridge colleges, and
NHS "postcode lotteries" for
costly medication.
The full details of MPs expenses
claims would not have
been acquired by the
Daily Telegraph had the parliamentary
authorities not
been preparing a heavily re-
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