Information, ethics and the law Edition: 1

Modern society has become increasingly dependent on information, and the ‘right to know’ is essential to any democracy. Yet it is almost inevitable that tension will arise between parties with opposing interests: those who want to gain access to information and those who want to preclude or restrict access to it. Given the importance of information and the rights and interests surrounding this tension a fairly extensive set of legal and ethical rules has evolved to govern the information environment.