Immeasurable harm
May 1st, 2007 by JamieB
Excerpts from the testimony of Tom Curley, president and CEO of the Associated Press, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, March 14, 2007.
When agencies respond as the law says they should, we know that the information they reveal can provoke public response that improves government operations, curbs waste and fraud, and even saves lives. When agencies don’t respond, those opportunities are delayed, or lost altogether.
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I can tell you about one of them. It’s not a dramatic story. It’s as ordinary as the lunchbox a child carries to school every day. . . .
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The presumption that any plausible reason for locking the files is a good enough reason is doing immeasurable harm.
When government has trained itself to believe that the risks from openness are substantial, while the risks from keeping secrets are negligible, you begin to get the kind of government nobody wants – a government that believes its job is to do all the thinking for us.
Read Curley’s entire testimony.