Internationally, the Netherlands confidently presents itself as an advocate of democracy and the rule of law. But when it comes to their own citizens the Dutch authorities are often far from frank and honest. Information is frequently withheld and internationally we are far from being a shining example.

Parliament has said the rules should be amended, because the Dutch administration is far too reticent when citizens ask for information.

Mass destruction
A painful illustration was provided by the previous cabinet's support for the allied war in Iraq. The cabinet of then-prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende argued that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. After the war, both MPs and journalists wanted to see what the Netherlands' security agencies had advised. It turned out that they had been far from certain that Iraq possessed such weapons.

Eventually, an independent committee was allowed to investigate the documents but journalists were told they had to wait until the investigation had been completed. This, it turned out, was a contravention of the Dutch Freedom of Information Law (WOB) but the cabinet refused to change its ways.

A right, not a gift
The proposition "The Netherlands is not an open democracy" raises a smile with National Ombudsman Alex Brenninkmeijer. Yet where transparency is concerned, he agrees to some extent:

"I think the Netherlands is far too closed. What irks me most is that we have repeatedly found that very important information was withheld, that some information was biased and that some information was being manipulated. Of course that is unacceptable."

Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner, on the other hand, subscribes to the view that the ease of requesting government documents is being abused. The civil servants who have to deal with the requests are overburdened, he says, so there is every reason to scale down the system.

No, counters the ombudsman, it is not the citizen but the state that is abusing the WOB legislation. If the authorities are unwilling to supply information they can resort to lengthy appeal procedures and gain up to 18 months' delay. "Public administration is ruled by fear. Information should be the citizen's right, rather than a gift from the state."

Dead painter
Freedom of Information specialist Roger Vleugels has found that in a mere ten years the Netherlands has sunk from being an international frontrunner to floundering in the lower regions. What makes the Dutch government so closed?

Vleugels suggests that the Dutch might have too much faith in the authorities.

"The state will be right, people think. One example is that there are relatively few parliamentary inquiries in the Netherlands. The research capacity of our parliament is weak. Also, there is relatively little investigative journalism. Compared to Scandinavian countries, ten to twenty times fewer information requests are made to the government."

One of the most revealing examples of how the government tries to hide information, according to Roger Vleugels, is the fire in the prime minister's Catshuis residence in 2004, which killed a painter.

Investigations into what exactly happened were met with resistance. Documents which could have provided some insight were moved from the prime minister's office to the state advocate's safe. In the end, the court ordered the safe to be opened nonetheless. (One of the facts revealed was that banned inflammable cleaning substances had been used inside the PM's residence during the paint job.)

Incomprehension
The government could make life a lot easier by following Norway's or the United States' example and publish documents online of its own accord, according to Thomas Bruning of the Netherlands' Union of Journalists (NVJ).

"The authorities claim they are working on it. But our impression is that the Netherlands is mainly opting for a good news show. If you really want to make information available online, you have to publish everything, including documents which reflect unfavourably on the state. In that respect the Scandinavian countries have progressed a lot more."

Abroad, the closed Dutch attitude is met with incomprehension: it does not fit the image that the Netherlands is trying to project, alongside its export products. Dutch embassies have a hard time explaining the discrepancy; according to unconfirmed reports they have been complaining to the cabinet.

(rk/ae/imm)