Independence Lost — Taxpayer Funding and Information Access Takes a Dark Turn

What happens when a leading world government on the forefront of scientific discovery holds an election, and the newly elected officials and their retinue revoke access to scientific information and important data paid for and used by taxpayers, citizens, and the general public? And what happens when these new leaders then undercut funding that could be used to close gaps in scientific and public health data that clearly led to deaths and disease?

We’re finding out.

Lack of access to raw data from governmental sources curtails the independence of scientists to conduct research, formulate new hypotheses, and validate results, while preventing citizens from monitoring issues of civic and scientific interest and importance. Information is power, and those newly in power seem reluctant to share either.

These new and apparently accelerating information limitations aren’t strictly aimed at scientists. Secrecy is the new normal. For example, the White House has been barring cameras and other recording devices from press briefings.

White House press briefings are taxpayer-funded events in a taxpayer-funded building hosted by taxpayer-funded employees of the state. There is no privacy provision or allowance. But political expediency now clearly trumps decades of norms and the logic of who is paying for what.

For scientists, policymakers seeking evidence for regulations or laws, or citizens simply wanting to know what is going on, this is only the tip of the iceberg. In April, one of the most valuable global resources for climate change science was removed from the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, with one expert who ran it for more than five years writing:

. . . it should be obvious to anyone how this senseless action runs counter to principles of good governance and scientific integrity. Some 20 years in the making, the breadth and quality of the website’s content was remarkable. It lasted through Democratic and Republican administrations, partly because its information mirrored the findings of the mainstream scientific community, including the National Academy of Sciences, other federal agencies and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

This is not the only abrogation of the deal with taxpayers and citizens (as rights are not purely transactional in nature, but broader than that). In February, information about animal welfare was removed from the US Department of Agriculture site, requiring taxpayers to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to learn what is going on in more than 1,200 labs and more than 6,000 other animal facilities, including puppy mills and other such places. Under the ruse of protecting privacy, attempts to change this decision have not fared well in the courts so far, despite the ways such information has been used to curb abuses in the past. The city of Chicago has gone so far as to put a climate page from the prior administration up as it was, to preserve the information. The city of Boston also followed suit for the EPA data.
more at:  https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/06/30/independence-lost-taxpayer-funding-information-access-takes-dark-turn/