Nations large and small all over the world are embracing freedom of information laws as one small, yet important step toward full participatory democracy.

More than 70 nations now have working FOI (Freedom of Information) laws - statutes that mandate public access to many of the documents prepared or maintained by government.

While they vary widely from country to country, the principle at the heart of the laws remains remarkably consistent: the people have a right of access to government information, the better to provide scrutiny of the system and the better to inform themselves as voters and as members of the society.

Lofty rhetoric, perhaps, but from my vantage point, as the executive director the National Freedom of Information Coalition in the United States, these laws live up to the claims.

Every day, I am reminded of the importance of FOI law in the United States and around the world, as I interact with a dizzying array of FOI users - journalists, to be sure, but more often everyday citizens with everyday concerns, locked in struggles with recalcitrant public officials bent on secrecy.

Just this week, I took a call from a gentleman in Kentucky, where, despite a pretty strong state FOI law, he was spending his valuable time just trying to get his hands on some run-of-the-mill zoning documents concerning land he owns.

He'd never given a moment's thought to freedom of information - he wasn't even familiar with the term - and yet now he needed government information, and he has a state law supporting his efforts.

After a bit of a run-around, he got the records - thanks to the law.

I have no doubt he never would have seen the information without it, and that's why FOI laws are so important. They establish a working presumption that if no legal reason exists for closure, the records belong to the citizens, not the government.

In nations without FOI laws, that's a radical proposition, but it's long overdue in Bermuda, hardly a new entrant to the ranks of developed countries. Several important values would be served by the embrace of FOI, each an overwhelming positive for Bermudians.

First, freedom of information law empowers citizens to better scrutinise their government, opening new avenues of inquiry and giving rise to new relationships between governments and those they serve.

FOI laws routinely usher in greater accountability. It's simple, really: the more eyeballs on the government's balance sheet, the better behaved the government becomes.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant, electric light the best policeman," wrote United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and I could not say it better.

Second, FOI laws level the playing field somewhat between the people and their government.

Better-informed citizens make better voters, who make more informed decisions.

In a system of self-governance, access to information creates political pressure on government to do better. The absence of access to information reduces citizenship to a spectator sport, a game in which those in power hold all the cards.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, access to information sends a powerful message to the citizenry that they, too, are part of the government, and fosters greater civic involvement.

In nation after nation embracing FOI laws, we have seen a parallel rise in non-government organisations, political organisations and other signs of a healthy civic conversation.

This is not happenstance; it is a direct result of greater information flow between governments and the people they serve.

Officials comfortable with the old smoke-filled rooms of yesteryear trot out the same excuses every time. FOI laws will create inefficiencies, discourage good people from running for public office and place information in the hands of people ill-equipped to understand it.

Balderdash.

Last I checked, not a single nation that has opened its records through FOI had fallen into the sea.

Quite the contrary: openness ushers in a host of benefits, some of which no one could have foreseen. Bermuda should be next in line.

Charles N. Davis, Ph.D., is executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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