Who Owns the Data?

Who should a government report bact to? Some might answer, "the people". Perhaps, "the taxpayers who foot that government's bills".

So, is the following behavior morally correct?

This is from The Japan Times online:

Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012


Delay in informing public about radiation may have resulted in unnecessary exposure in Fukushima
U.S. forces given SPEEDI data early
Kyodo, AP
The science ministry provided data on the radioactive fallout to U.S. forces a few days after the crisis erupted at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant — far earlier than the public was informed, a ministry official said.


The revelation came amid criticism that the government's delay in releasing data from the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI) may have resulted in the unnecessary exposure of residents near the plant to radiation. Those residents were later evacuated.

The data were provided to the U.S. forces via the Foreign Ministry on March 14, three days after the 9-magnitude temblor and monster tsunami triggered the triple-meltdown crisis, according to Itaru Watanabe, an official with the ministry's Science and Technology Policy Bureau.

But it was not until March 23 that the public was officially told.