Sunshine Week Challenges Culture of Secrets
Last updated Saturday, March 11, 2006 11:33 PM CST in Opinion
There is a growing "culture of secrecy" within government circles that is quietly, perniciously eroding the public's ability to observe its institutions at work and hold its elected and appointed officials accountable.
Though more pronounced and traceable within the federal government, this trend toward the privatization of public affairs also shows up in state, regional and even municipal administrations. More troubling seems to be the lack of public dismay or even acknowledgment of this trend. Aside from some noisy journalists and civil libertarians, little is made of the federal government's propensity to classify more and more documents, or of some local governments' predilection for shutting out public input.
In response to this growing problem, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, using a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, last year started Sunshine Week. The purpose is to highlight the importance of open government in a democratic system, draw the public's attention to instances of inappropriate institutional secrecy and call on public officials and private individuals to keep the lights on at city hall, the county courthouse and our nation's capital.
Sunshine Week 2006 begins today, with the backdrop of increased secrecy at the federal level. According to the Sunshine Week web site (www.sunshineweek.org) the federal government now spends $148 creating new classified documents for every $1 spent on declassifying old papers. The site also notes the decline the in the number of documents declassified each year, down to 44 million pages in 2004 from more than 100 million in 2001.
While these numbers mean little to the average person, consider that there are literally trillions of documents maintained by the government and many of them are classified for no justifiable reason.
People as diverse as former Indiana Republican Congressman Lee Hamilton to Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, say the federal government classifies far more documents than necessary.
And it's getting worse. A fundamental shift in the interpretation of the federal Freedom of Information Act took place during President Bush's first term when both his Attorney General and his deputy chief of staff advised members of the administration to look for ways NOT to release documents requested under the provisions of the act. In other words, the 1966 law designed to shed more light government operations is now being used to dim the light.
Of course, this is not only a problem with the federal government. In the last five years, there have been at least three criminal prosecutions for violations of Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act. Prior to that, observers could recall only one or two others since the state FOI became law in 1967. Our newspaper frequently crosses swords with local officials who don't think that the public documents they possess or the decisions they make should be subject to the public's scrutiny.
To be sure, there are certainly some government documents and official discussions that must be private. Military and security strategies, diplomatic contacts, ongoing criminal investigations, all must be handled in secret. Too often, however, we see officials using these and other exceptions to extend the veil of secrecy for their own convenience or political purpose.
That can't be. And Sunshine Week is a reminder to us all that to have an open government, we must demand it by holding our elected officials accountable.
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