‘A Europe of Values: Transparency in Public Communication’

Ton Veen, Tjirk van der Ziel

‘For over 25 years, the Netherlands has had legislation concerning transparency of public administration (WOB). This makes the Netherlands one of the first countries in the world where information from the authorities may be legally enforced. The number of so-called WOB-requests by the media, however, is declining and hovers around the one thousand a year. This is comparable to the number of requests by one single newspaper in the USA (the Washington Post: 2.5 million in the entire US). In comparison, the total of Dutch WOB-requests amounts to an incredibly small number.’

This revelation, made by the independent legal adviser in media matters Roger Vleugels (IVON office, Utrecht), was an enormous eye-opener for most of the participants of the summer course on transparency in the public domain. Students and lecturers from Hungary (Karoli Gaspar University), Romania (Babes-Bolyai University) and Turkey (Istanbul University) came to Ede thinking that they had arrived in a country with an enormous transparency in matters of information. They thought the situation in the Netherlands would be very different from their own countries, where journalists are driven from pillar to post, or worse, where they are threatened with legal processes or dismissal. Evidently, this was not the case. Vleugels added that the low number of requests for information were due to sheer indolence, to the extensive process necessary to retrieve all relevant data, but above all to the Dutch culture: Dutchmen would not have a tradition of holding the administration accountable, and the administration is happy with the situation as it is (they even hire WOB-specialists to reject the requests whenever possible).

Confidence
During the conference, which lasted almost a fortnight, the concept of transparency has been shown to be a very difficult concept to define. All parties agreed that a lot of research into the topic is still to be done. However, we have reached a preliminary conclusion that the extent of transparency is closely tied to the absence or presence of confidence in the established institutions. It is the lack of confidence that is considered very problematic by governments, the media and companies alike. This confidence could be restored by a greater transparency of information and activities. The call for more openness or transparency is being heard louder and more often in societies that are becoming increasingly more complex, including those in Eastern Europe. It will be clear, however, that there are different levels of transparency. Is transparency always good for society? Remember, for instance, the recent proposal to make public the data concerning the European agricultural subsidies (one of the WOBs mentioned by Vleugels!). Many farmers protested against this, because their private data would be there for anyone to see. In determining the extent of transparency we should, therefore, take into account the added value for society as a whole. This is an important task, not only for journalism, but also for companies and institutions.

A view of the world
Some developments in society work counter-productive. An example is the trend among the media to rely less on fact-checking (i.e. asking whether the facts are correct and whether publication will add to a more balanced opinion-forming by citizens) and more often on the question whether information sells well. Investigative journalism (revealing hidden truths) should offer a good alternative.

In addition, there may also be practical limits to transparency. Should journalists, for instance, give their readers/listeners/viewers the opportunity to look in on their jobs to win back their confidence? It will certainly be profitable if they show how news selection works, which choices are made and most importantly which (implied) view of mankind or the world is underlying these choices. Transparency is of course also related to underlying values. However, if journalists are constantly being scrutinized, their job will be practically impossible to execute. Similar developments can be seen in corporate communications. Companies are continuously held accountable for their actions. It remains to be seen, however, whether communication experts are able to bolster the justification with a more transparent approach. Moreover: the competition is also watching…

Towards a European culture of transparency
When studying transparency, its historical, sociological and cultural dimensions are of utmost importance. This was one of the conclusions of the summer course. Questions like the following arose: is the complexity of our society the sole reason for our need of openness, or are there other reasons, too, such as the fragmenting of the spheres in which we live, the liberation from traditional straitjackets, and the emancipation of many minority groups (impact of subcultures)? Another conclusion was that we should list a set of collective values in order to define a European culture of transparency. Inevitably, we will encounter conflicting values. A value such as the protection of privacy is, for instance, conflicting with the value of absolute openness. This may be one of the reasons why the attitude of governments and organisations is sometimes less active in providing information.

At the same time, we will encounter interesting paradoxes. A normative lifestyle is dawning on many: at a time of unlimited communication, a completely transparent society will develop (automatically?). This will be a society in which mis communications and, consequently, conflicts and oppositions will be reduced to a minimum. Man as an entirely free being who possesses complete, real-time knowledge. As such: a utopia. Here, we refer to the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo, who poses that the mass media have rather made post-modern society less transparent, less ‘well-educated’ and less self-conscious, resulting in social chaos. “The increase of possibilities to find information on countless aspects of reality makes it increasingly more difficult to imagine a simplex reality.” (Dutch translation of The Transparent Society 1989/1998, p. 23)

Research
In short, the summer course in Ede has been an exciting and stimulating experience, an intensive period of lectures, workshops, seminars and discussions on a topic that will become increasingly more important in Europe over the years to come. The lecturers of the various institutes involved have made an inventory of topics that need further study; and they have formed all necessary alliances to co-operate in preparing the next summer course in Budapest in 2006.