When The Royal Gazette launched its A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign in January, one of the aims was to highlight for readers what they would be allowed to know if they lived in a country with freedom of information.

Millions of citizens around the world have the right to ask their governments for information — on everything from dubious public spending and civil service morale to unpublicised prison breaks and police officers with criminal records — and receive a timely response.

In the last ten months there have been plenty of examples in Bermuda when a public access to information (PATI) law would have given the public the right to get answers to questions about their lives.

Just last month, independent truckers who claim their livelihood is being taken away by illegal tractor trailer dumpsters complained that they could not find out which companies had been given special permits for certain loads.

Government admitted that several construction companies were "using dumpsters inappropriately" but refused to say which ones or disclose which have special permits.

Likewise, Government said earlier this year that nine percent of its transport fleet was to be axed as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

But it has consistently failed to disclose since what the total savings to taxpayers have been.

Taxpayers have also been given scant details about a team of former Police officers from the UK who have been brought to the Island to look at cold cases.

Requests to the Bermuda Police Service and the Home Affairs Ministry for basic information, such as the cost of their visit and where they have come from, have been stonewalled.

But for all the incidences of secrecy and closed-door attitudes, there have been some small steps along the path toward more transparency.

Parliament's Rules and Privileges committee agreed earlier this year to allow the new Joint Select Committee on Education to hold its meetings in public on a trial basis, while it considers whether all committees should open their doors.

The education committee has already held three public sessions and after The Royal Gazette reported on the first, chairman Neletha Butterfield publicly thanked this newspaper for its "excellent report".

The backbench Government MP, who personally asked House of Assembly Speaker Stanley Lowe to consider allowing the committee to meet openly, said: "The report was very good and many of the (school) principals commented on that and members of the public.

"It's a sensitive time for us and parents and teachers; all of Bermuda. But if you are going to report fairly, then trust builds up."

John Barritt, the Opposition's spokesman on legislative reform, said the opening up of the committee was an important move in the right direction.

"That, to my mind, was something of a breakthrough," he said. "It's positive.

"I'd like to see it happen with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Private Bills Committee. I'm hoping this will signal the start of a change."

He said the PAC was particularly important, since its role is to scrutinise Government's spending of public funds.

"The PAC ought to be far more open and active than it is so the members are keeping a check on Government expenditure.

"It ought to be open to the public. Instead, we learn about things months or years after the fact.

"If you open it up, it puts everybody on notice that you may be called at any time to account for the expenditure of public funds."

Mr. Barritt added: "Ultimately, what we need to do is change the culture around here. This (PATI) legislation won't be the be all and end all.

"It's about releasing information and making information available. Parliament is supposed to play a very critical role in that.

"Unfortunately... we operate on a basis that's decades out of date. "We need to change the overall presumption that committees meet in private."

This newspaper has asked the publicly funded Corporation of Hamilton to open up its meetings, a move Mayor Sutherland Madeiros has said it will consider.

Last month, the municipality began making public its resolutions for the first time.