The Trump secrecy assessment
The U.S. classifies far too many secrets, obstructing democracy.
Excessive government secrecy takes many forms, from agencies needlessly claiming documents are classified to ignoring information requests and destroying records — even when the documents show government fraud or illegal conduct. This hinders a free press, effective oversight, and the public’s ability to self govern.
We need to fight for systemic improvements, and we need the press to vigorously question the government every time it says something is classified.
Featured Items
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"Humanity Perseveres" at Guantanamo Amid Chaos of Hunger Strike
On May 15, military officials at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility escorted visiting media to maximum security Camp 5, where non compliant prisoners are held, for a rare opportunity to observe the prisoners' morning prayer. Aliya Hussain, who works with the Center for Constitutional Rights' Global Justice Initiative, tweeted after …
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Freedom of the Press Foundation Crowd-Funding A Court Reporter To Transcribe Bradley Manning’s Trial
Campaign will support a professional stenographer to produce transcripts and provide them to the public and press For immediate release San Francisco, CA – May 9, 2013 – Freedom of the Press Foundation is proud to announce a new fundraising campaign to hire a professional court stenographer to produce transcripts …
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Supreme Court Deals Blow to Transparency, But You Can Help MuckRock Fight Back
Michael Morisy is the founder of MuckRock, which was one of Freedom of the Press Foundation's original transparency journalism beneficiaries. He can be reached at [email protected]. Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck a blow to government transparency by ruling that states have the right to prohibit out-of-state Freedom of …
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Inside One of the Biggest Freedom of Information Act Fights in History
As newsroom budgets shrink around the country, one of the casualties has been challenges to Freedom of Information Act violations or other open-records laws through litigation. One recent study shows major news organizations are challenging government secrecy orders in court much less frequently in the last few years. Despite these …
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Bradley Manning's Voice Now Available on The Internet Archive and The Pirate Bay
Yesterday Freedom of the Press Foundation published a full, previously unreleased audio recording of Bradley Manning's speech to the military court about his motivations for leaking the Apache helicopter video, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars Logs, and the State Department Diplomatic Cables to WikiLeaks. In this recording he says in his …
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Help Spread Bradley Manning's Words Across the Internet
Today Freedom of the Press Foundation released an audio recording of Bradley Manning's statement to the military court. By releasing this audio recording, we wish to make sure that the voice of this generation's most prolific whistleblower can be heard—literally—by the world. Please spread his words as far as you …
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Freedom of the Press Foundation Publishes Leaked Audio of Bradley Manning’s Statement
Today, Freedom of the Press Foundation is publishing the full, previously unreleased audio recording of Private First Class Bradley Manning’s speech to the military court in Ft. Meade about his motivations for leaking over 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks. In addition, we have published highlights from Manning’s statement to the …
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Why Fighting for Hard-Hitting, Nonprofit News May Mean Taking on the IRS
When we think about journalism coming under attack by the government we rarely think about the Internal Revenue Service. We think about the persecution of whistleblowers, over classification of documents, increasing secrecy and surveillance, and an utter disregard for Freedom of Information requests. We think about threats, harassment and detainment …
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Independent Journalists Lead Way in Covering and Bringing Transparency to Bradley Manning's Court Martial
Cross-posted with permission from Firedoglake.com Whenever members of the US media have heard Pfc. Bradley Manning is about to testify or make some kind of statement in military court at Fort Meade, where his court martial is taking place, the press pool has ballooned. Suddenly, many media organizations want to …
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Obama Promises More Transparency on Drone Strikes, Then Doubles Down on Secrecy
In the wake of the government's secret legal rationale for the targeted killing of American citizens leaking to the press, President Obama has now twice vowed to bring more transparency to national security issues, and in particular, drone strikes. Yet since his two statements, his administration has instead moved to …
