By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterJUST A week since the implementation of the Access to Information Act, Senator Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Information, is reporting that more than 40 requests have been made for previously classified Government documents.
"So far as I understand it, there were 41 applications. All are in the process of being dealt with," Mr. Whiteman told The Gleaner yesterday.
According to the Information Minister, whose ministry is overseeing the procedures of the Access to Information Unit (ATIU) which is headed by director Aylair Livingston, responses have already been made to seven of those requests.
Also speaking to The Gleaner yesterday, Diane Young, public education manager in the AITU, said that most of the requests had come from members of the media, as well as from civil society.
"There have also been a few persons who have applied for personal information such as a student who wanted to find out how to start a business," she said, also indicating that the majority of requests were for documents from the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
Ms. Young said the second highest demand has been for documents from the Office of the Prime Minister, while the lowest has been for those from the Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport.
EXEMPTED DOCUMENTS
At the same time, Mr. Whiteman addressed concerns that among the exempted documents within the Act, were those pertaining to the national economy. Noting that documents relating to the economy were already accessible to the public, he explained that the documents exempted were those "the disclosure of which would cause damage to the economy."
Ms. Young cited last year's 'dollar scare' (in which a loss of confidence led investors to purchase huge sums of foreign currency, consequently radically devaluing the Jamaican dollar) as an example of the devastating effect that could result from the release of some documents.
"What you find is that within the economy, that would not be a good thing. Any leader of any country would not want anything that would cause unrest," she stated.
The other eight categories of documents exempt are those related to security, defence, international relations; the Cabinet; law enforcement; legal privilege; Government's deliberative processes; business affairs of others (trade secrets, etc.); and the personal privacy of individuals.
According to Ms. Young, the decision on whether a particular document should be exempt initially lies with the Permanent Secretary of the particular ministry, or the CEO of the Government agency.
As has been widely noted, denied requests may subsequently be taken to an appeals tribunal and ultimately to the court.
