President Barack Obama issued a memo on Jan. 21, expressing his adminstration's support for the Freedom of Information Act.
The memo included this statement: "The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve."
In light of his support for open records and the Freedom of Information Act, do you think other public, governmental bodies will follow suit and be more willing to open their records for the public? And will journalists be emboldened to make open records requests and demand government accountability?
Are we entering a new era of openness in government with the Obama presidency as a role model?
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4 comments:
The Freedom of Information Act is something that I personally believe will benefit our system. People have the right to know what is going on in our government. It is unethical to hide the truth from citizens of the United States, when we have the right to know information regarding what our officials are doing. I think that the United States is more willing to open their records than other governments will. Perhaps some will follow our lead and create more to this openness in government. Another benefit in doing so will be journalists making requests for open records. If something needs to be exposed, then journalists should bring about the truth for our country. We all have rights as citizens, and knowing what our government is doing should be one of them.
I think that the Freedom of Information Act will competely be something that we will be able to benefit from. The citizens of America have a right to know what their government does and it is completely unethical to hide the truth. Isn't this supposed to be the land of the free? Therefore, we should have the right to know what our government is doing, whether we like it or now. It should be something that will benefit journalists, since they will be able to expose more and will get to talk about more issues and find out more information, that prior would of been forbidden. They will actually be able to give the American public answers, which is what we deserve.
of course it will have a good impact on the govt as long as it portrays them in a good light. but if one negative issue comes out, it will be made into the biggest problem and then it will keep the govt from releasing anything out. I hope that obama can start a new era of honesty, but the fact is that nobody wants to be portrayed negatively and if the media gets ahold of certain issues, they will have the nation doubting the gov't more then they already do.
I do feel that sense we live in this nation that we should be allowed to know everything that's going on. I understand the government hides some things for our protection but I also know that they hide stuff from us just to do it. I think this act will have a great impact on us in a positive way. I feel our government would be more willing to cooperate with these act and be ore willing to open up than other countries. A huge advantage to the media on this because it will be an open source of endless information that will be no doubt bring jobs and more media and news to this nation.
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