For citizens to be well informed, it is important that journalists have easy access to information. one important source is government information, for which Dutch legislation (Wet op de Openbaarheid van Bestuur, WOB) on the public nature of government records is the primary tool, as it gives citizens (and journalists) the right to access government data. It is of great importance that this kind of information be easily accessible and comprehensible; it would be unacceptable if things were otherwise. Democracy stands to benefit if the government’s activities, at whatever level, can be followed and scrutinized. The way in which the WoB law functions has recently come under attack, especially from journalists. It takes lengthy procedures to gain access to this kind of information and the results of one’s patience often turn out to be unsatisfactory, a state of affairs that has caused resentment in VVoJ (the Vereniging van Onderzoeksjournalisten), an association of investigative journalists. They demand that important information be made available to all those working in this particular field, without laborious procedures. They have appealed to the Press Promotion Fund to launch an investigation into the functioning of the WoB law in order to gain easier access to government information.
When looking at the views of the journalists we interviewed, it is worth making a distinction between those who claim they do not find it difficult to get access to government information (at least not more than to other sources) and those who have to put up with ‘the terror of spokesmen’. Several interviewees in fact feel that the growing army of government spokespeople and the slick strategies adopted by information services result in the increasing dependence of journalists on leaks and whistleblowers. In the past five years or so, government officials have worried more and more about hypes and the possible impact of a damaged reputation or image, and this trend, in the view of NRC Handelsblad/nrc.next, is a great danger to the independence of journalistic work. Huub Wijfjes, too, blames the growing power of information services, especially the quasi-journalistic reports produced by them at great expense. These documents rarely mention any sources, so much so that the origin is to all appearances a journalistic medium, whereas it is in fact a government agency or a commercial organization. The business of image building has grown enormously, and the balance between independent journalism and public relations is lost. Today it seems as if political, economic and sports journalism have gradually degenerated into a form of embedded journalism, with a number of journalists going along with the trend in the interest of given politicians and parties, company chairmen and companies, or coaches and sports federations.
