Michael Sheen has weighed in on the government’s review of the Freedom of Information Act, calling it a “full frontal attack” on the public’s right to know.
The actor, best known for playing Tony Blair in a series of TV dramas and the award-winning film The Queen, said the FoI Act should be “extended and strengthened” not potentially watered down.
“Tony Blair has said that introducing the FoI Act was his biggest regret but for many people it is one of the finest accomplishments of his tenure as prime minister,” he said. “The Freedom of Information Act enshrines our right to know. It gives us the right to information that we want to know, not what the government is prepared to let us see. It’s that information that gives us the ability to make informed decisions and to voice opinions on those decisions.”
Campaigners have voiced fears that government proposals could make it more difficult, and costly, for the media and public to use the Act to access information held by public bodies.
“The consultation … is nothing short of a full frontal attack,” he said. “When the public right to know is not upheld, government, at both a national and local level, becomes opaque and removed from the very people it is meant to serve.”
Sheen, writing for newspaper body the News Media Association, said that without open access to information it will become harder to defend causes he believes in, such as supporting a strong NHS.
“Newspaper journalism, whether local or national, has used FoI to hold the government to account on everything from MPs’ expenses to staff shortages at the NHS,” he said. “If the politicians and civil servants behind this assault get their way, then the right … to understand the workings of our democracy will be seriously damaged. [The] FoI Act should be extended and strengthened rather than weakened.”
Earlier this year, Sheen penned a piece for the NMA championing local newspapers and the role they have in communities across the UK.
Last month, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson wrote to the Society of Editors saying that his party will push for a stronger Freedom of Information Act and voiced concerns about the government commission reviewing the legislation.
After launching a independent commission to look into the issue in July, the government has called for responses to its proposals by 20 November.
