Good morning Mike,
Well I have to agree that all of these media organisations joining forces to protect freedom of information is a good thing, but I think you and Jason Morrison are right that having the company executives standing side by side presenting speeches reminiscent of politicians was the wrong way to present the story. Perhaps if we are lucky we will get all of the big names from the media outlets, people who are actually recognised by the general public, standing side by side at the next press conference…and I think you would find that the public would trust the collective stance of Kerry O'Brien, John Laws, Alan Jones, Ray Martin, Piers Ackerman and others more than a bunch of company executives. If you could get them all to stand up together, I think the public would take notice.
Of course I think Yes Minister did a very good job of showing the quick shift away from open government in politicians' minds following an election win, in the episode "Open Government". If I remember correctly they came to the conclusion that they supported open government…as long as it was in the public interest. They defined the "public interest" in a later episode where Jim Hacker MP wanted to stop an embarrassing interview from being aired by the BBC…from memory it went something like this:
Jim Hacker MP: "Well it's not in my interest, and I represent the public, therefore it's not in the public interest!".
Have a great weekend Mike!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra