Phone hacking: let's break up this information cartel

Britain's cosy, corrupt power elite has been fostered by a black-market trade in data
Nick Clegg phone hacking
Nick Clegg delivering a speech on the phone-hacking inquiry and media ethics at the Institute for Government, London on 14 July. Photograph: Oli Scarff/PA

Nick Clegg was right to acknowledge on Wednesday that phone hacking is the symptom of a wider problem: the cosy, corrupt relationship between the power elites. He didn't, however, identify the root cause of this corruption – the secretive system of information patronage.

I was amazed, having been a reporter in the US, to discover that all the public records we used routinely to conduct basic verification and investigation were off limits in the UK. Records such as criminal convictions, arrest logs, full court documents and land ownership documents were either illegal or very difficult and expensive to obtain. Even the detailed financial accounts of public bodies were unavailable.

When I tried to investigate parliamentary expenses, all the records I'd normally access in the US were secret. A five-year legal battle to access official information was ultimately ineffective, as parliament tried to retrospectively change the law so the Freedom of Information Act didn't apply. At that point, someone on the inside sold the full database to the Daily Telegraph.

This puts journalists wanting to do serious public interest investigations legitimately at a severe disadvantage. The fact is, all information is vulnerable to release – it is simply a matter of the resources someone wants to devote to obtaining it. In Britain information is not equally accessible to all, rather its release depends on one's wealth, power or privilege. Only the richest and most powerful media organisations have a shot at access and they, in turn, only want to expend their resources on investigations they believe will guarantee a story and a big audience – thus the focus is on sex, scandal and celebrity.

When journalism is treated as just another widget in a commercial enterprise, the focus isn't on truth, verification or public good, but productivity and output. Spending years on a story, whether to investigate MPs' expenses or phone hacking, doesn't make business sense. If we are serious about wanting this type of journalism, we have to make it easier and more cost-effective to access information legitimately.

Instead, journalism in Britain is a patronage system – just like politics. It is rare to get good, timely information through merit (eg by trawling through public records); instead it's about knowing the right people, exchanging favours. In America reporters are not allowed to accept any hospitality. In Britain, taking people out to lunch is de rigueur. It's where information is traded. But in this setting, information comes at a price.


Freedom of information laws bust open the cartel. They give everyone an equal right to access information. You don't have to take anyone out to lunch. You don't have to pay anyone or suppress a damaging story to maintain a flow of information. You simply ask, with the full power of the law behind you. The way to stop this black-market trade in official information isn't to further criminalise valuable civic data, but to legitimise those records necessary for good reporting. By doing so we remove the patronage power of the elite and open the door to a new form of civic journalism.