March was the month that The Royal Gazette invited all of Bermuda to participate in Sunshine Week – an initiative promoting public access to information and open government.

The newspaper marked the event as part of our 'A Right to Know: Giving People Power' campaign, which called on Government to fulfill a long-held promise to Bermuda and pass a public access to information (PATI) law during 2008.

The aim was to get the community talking about why it is crucial for taxpayers to know how their money is being spent and to think about why Bermuda should follow more than 70 democracies around the world in introducing a freedom of information law.

Premier Dr. Ewart Brown told The Royal Gazette he welcomed Sunshine Week and the principle it represents. However he insisted that when the law is passed, it will not be because of this newspaper's campaign, but because of his Government's commitment to Bermudians.

The campaign gained backing from a number of high-profile figures, including former Premier Alex Scott, who first proposed PATI legislation. He commented: "This is not an anti-government exercise. It's a pro-democracy vehicle for the public that we serve.

"The Government serves the public, serves the people. Access to information, especially in this day and age, is fundamental to good governance. It is their information, not our information."

Our readers also shared their views, with almost 400 joining a group on the Facebook social networking site called Citizens for Freedom of Information in Bermuda.

Among the responses e-mailed in was a message from Janet Wingate, who wrote: "Just a quick e-mail to say how encouraged I felt having read today's edition of the paper.

"I am certainly in full support of public transparency and accountability, as are all right thinking Bermudians."

Andre Richardson said: "Every election we are told by the MPs that they work for us – the people of Bermuda – but once the election is over they seem to be the ones back in the driver's seat and don't have to answer to the Bermuda public any more."

Lise and Edmund Fox told us: "Please put us on the list of supporters for 'A Right to Know' as we need the power to speak, to hear and to find out as we want to stay a democratic society. We think it's about time that we find out where our taxpayers' money is going, how it's being spent."

Over the summer, the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) urged the British Government to "strongly encourage" all the British Overseas Territories to bring in freedom of information. Cayman is the only territory to have passed an FOI law.

In November 2008, Attorney General Kim Wilson announced that Government lawyers are drafting a freedom of information law for Bermuda as a "priority" and that once it is drafted, it will go back to Cabinet for approval to table in the House of Assembly.