The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister yesterday outlined plans to publish a new defamation bill in a major speech he gave on civil liberties.

As he put it, ‘We intend to provide a new statutory defence for those speaking out in the public interest, whether they be big broadcasters or the humble blogger. And we intend to clarify the law around the existing defences of fair comment, and justification.’

He added that the high costs of defamation proceedings would be addressed and announced the extension of the Freedom of Information Act to cover potentially hundreds more bodies, as well as ending an anomaly that exempts organisations owned by more than one public authority.

It was a particularly wide-ranging address and will have a profound effect on the rich and powerful who currently use Britain’s courts to suppress material – irrespective of accuracy – simply because they do not like it.

Perhaps more significantly, however, it was a further demonstration of how openness and accountability are now deemed to be inseparable from public office.

And as the Deputy PM also put it, any institution benefiting from public funds must be open to proper scrutiny.

This further rebalancing of individual rights, especially those of the taxpayer, against those of the institutions highlights how far Guernsey has to catch up with modern, democratic principles.

Yet while we remain critical of how government as a whole has been laggardly in these matters, there are some encouraging individual signs. These include open meetings involving the Assembly and Constitution Committee, PSD’s on waste, Scrutiny, and, shortly, the planning authority.

Not so long ago, such developments would have been unthinkable and the change is to be welcomed. Yet there is more that needs to be done. Sark and Alderney, for instance, publish agendas, decisions and minutes of their departmental meetings and are puzzled that Guernsey does not.

However, in terms of open government, the climate has changed irrevocably and that is something this island will have to embrace just as it did – belatedly – with human rights.