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I Have Been Telling You

February 14, 2011

Lekso Lekiashvili, media.ge

When being Soviet citizens we, Georgians used to visit shabby pubs instead of clubs and instead of throwing parties we used to feast. At the time the song whose lyrics 'I have been telling you to get out of the window, you will see a phaeton there, get in and drive to me' were absolutely unrelated to journalism was in fashion. A pipe, clarinet and drum (at the time the DJ couldn't do mixing alone) were playing...

I had this song and scene on my mind when being taught an unwritten law of journalism at university:
"When being slammed the door in face a journalist should get inside through the window to get the info."
Now please tell me what a journalist should do when the door and the window are shut and most of the buildings have got windows instead of doors? And especially with none of the windows having an opening.
There is a website
www.opendata.ge which provides a database of public information (IDFI).
The most interesting thing is that when opening the website the column on the left features the news related to public information.
Wondering what titles the column includes?
'The Ministry of Internal Affairs is considering the administrative complaint submitted by IDFI;'
'The Ministry of Defence refuses to provide public information;'
'IDFI submitted administrative appeals to the Ministries;'
'Response from the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs to public information request;'
'Orders of the Minister of Agriculture on issuing bonuses;'
'The third attempt to receive the public information from the Parliament of Georgia failed."
Four out of six pieces of news cover public agencies' denial to provide public information. One of them (from the Ministry of Agriculture) is provided overdue and the only one - the Ministry of Sport and Youth demands a ten-day term set by the law to provide public information, this is to say neither the website, and accordingly nor the society and media, has got this piece of information.
I haven't been searching for this piece of information on the aforementioned website, it was posted on the homepage and whatever you see is just copy-pasted.
What shall we do?
Let alone media - IDFI is not a mean of media. It is being implemented through the financial backing of the Open Society Georgia Foundation and represents a kind of intermediate between media and the State.
What should media do if the intermediate itself has got to fight so much to obtain public information?
I recall a quote from Gospel: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
We do knock, call, waylay, beg, wait, but in vain!
If only we were asking for something secret and hazardous - we just ask for public information and they refuse to give it away.
The main problem is that the fourth power is depended on the goodwill of the first and especially on the second power whether the fourth power is going to get a response to the request.
What is the solution to the issue? That's the question to be normally included in public information but as I have mentioned above, we have no access to that.
See You!

http://www.media.ge/en/node/40164

photo: lekspert.blogspot.com/

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