As U.S. Embraces Secrecy, Other Countries Embrace Openness - May 17, 2004 Vol.5, No.10

May 17, 2004 Vol.5, No.10:

Published: 05/17/2004

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As U.S. Embraces Secrecy, Other Countries Embrace Openness

Countries around the world are embracing laws promoting openness in government, according to an updated global survey for freedominfo.org, a web site operated by the National Security Archive and other openness advocates.

Over 50 countries have adopted freedom-of-information laws similar to the United States' Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which guarantees the public's right to access documents held by most of the executive branch. More than half of these governments passed these laws within the last decade.

The May 2004 update of the report, The Freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World, includes profiles of four new laws passed since the report was last updated in September 2003. Each profile links to the text of the law and briefly notes the law's effectiveness (or lack thereof).

Ironically, while this report documents that other countries are embracing open government and more democracy to keep government accountable, the federal government here in the United States is under fire for turning its back on this country's biggest competitive advantage, its openness, and vastly expanding government secrecy. While the White House scrubs information from government websites, suppresses or rewrites scientific conclusions to conform to ideological and policy positions, Congress and the Bush Administration have undermined FOIA in two direct ways: The Homeland Security Act, passed in 2002, allows businesses to tell the federal government behind closed doors about known public health and safety threats to our nation's "critical infrastructure" without facing requirements, timetables or other consequences to fix the problems. And, reversing the previous administration's presumption of openness, Attorney General John Ashcroft in October 2001 directed federal agencies to reject requests for documents under FOIA whenever possible.