If you didn't know the phrase "A Right to Know" before 2008, chances are you're well acquainted with it now.

On January 21, The Royal Gazette launched a campaign to get a freedom of information law passed in Bermuda — and soon even Premier Ewart Brown was name checking it at press conferences.

But it was another PLP politician who helped kick-start our push to get the Island legislation which scores of countries around the world have already adopted, including fellow small jurisdictions like Cayman and Antigua.

Former Premier Alex Scott promised a public access to information (PATI) law in 2003 when he was in charge and remains as enthusiastic about it to this day.

He helped launch our campaign by posing on the steps outside the House of Assembly with a copy of the discussion paper he asked Government's Central Policy Unit (CPU) to produce on the topic.

Backbench MP Mr. Scott told us: "It certainly is an idea whose time has come. I hope that we do move on ahead with some form of freedom of information or PATI. I hope it's something that there is little or no resistance to."

He wasn't the only person locally to support us — right from the start we had community members behind us such as former Anglican Bishop Ewen Ratteray, Bermuda National Trust director Jennifer Gray, teachers' union leader Mike Charles, former Opposition UBP leader Grant Gibbons, columnist and journalist Tom Vesey, lawyer Tim Marshall, environmentalist Stuart Hayward and US Consul Gregory Slayton.

There was backing from overseas too — we received messages of encouragement from, among others, the National Freedom of Information Coalition in the US, the Cayman Islands' FOI coordinator and the Carter Center human rights organisation, which helped Jamaica implement its PATI law.

Most importantly, our readers told us they liked what we were trying to achieve. After all, the campaign's full title — A Right to Know: Giving People Power — made clear that having access to Government-held information about matters which affect their lives could only be a good thing for the public.

The campaign had a wider aim too — to promote a culture of openness and transparency in all publicly-funded bodies and get them to open their doors to the people for the first time.

As 2008 got under way, our campaign began to get talked about in the highest places.

Two Independent Senators — Alf Oughton and Walwyn Hughes — gave their approval in February, along with Opposition Senate Leader Michael Dunkley, who talked about transparency during his maiden speech in the Upper House.

March came and brought with it Sunshine Week. This newspaper got on board a US initiative promoting public access to information and open government.

Beginning March 17, we published articles for a week focusing on the importance of transparency, accountability and giving taxpayers the ability to get hold of information which belongs to them. We even persuaded some of our readers to wear yellow for a day in support of A Right to Know.

UBP MP John Barritt, whose party has pushed for PATI for several years, wrote in a guest column: "For anyone trying to understand what all the fuss about freedom of information is, they should ask themselves one question: Would you prefer to know or to not know about things that can affect your life?"

By July, the PLP caucus put the topic of PATI on its agenda for discussion and Britain's Foreign Affairs Committee published a report urging the British Government to "strongly encourage" all its territories to bring in FOI.

Bermuda was singled out in the 171-page document as needing to strengthen its transparency measures and stop holding parliamentary committee meetings in secret.

Two welcome signs that the Island's culture of secrecy was changing came in the autumn. Stanley Lowe, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, announced in September that the new Joint Select Committee on Education would be allowed to hold its meetings in public, after a request from chairman Neletha Butterfield.

Mr. Lowe described it as a "landmark decision" and said the Rules and Privileges Committee was considering allowing the same for all parliamentary committees. Just over a month later, the publicly funded Corporation of Hamilton started publishing its decisions for the first time in its 213-year history.

More good news came in November when Attorney General Kim Wilson revealed that Government lawyers had begun drafting a freedom of information law for Bermuda as a "priority".

James Ferguson, at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative's Access to Information Programme, wrote to us in November following the news.

"I want to congratulate your team at The Royal Gazette for this great PATI development!" said his e-mail. "The article has been circulated across our offices in Delhi, Accra, and London, and I've sent news to some of my colleagues in Canada. I really hope the Government follows through with this."