Sunshine Week

The government’s new press secrecy policies pose a threat to our system of democracy as we know it. According to Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio Television News Directors Association, since the terror attacks of 2001 a “climate of government secrecy” has enveloped the country and “databases for government agencies have been taken off the web, files and meetings dealing with security have been closed…we know less today about transportation rules, water and power sources in our communities and judicial proceedings involving immigrants.” These policies run counter to one of the fundamental principles vital to democracy; freedom of the press. Our founding fathers understood the critical need for a free press. They were influenced by some of the most enlightened minds of the 17^th century, many of whom called for the banishment of censorship. John Milton, a great English poet, made an impassioned plea in his famous essay Areopagitica against the dangers of censorship. He stated that the ideals of wisdom and truth belong to everyone and that we must let truth and falsehood struggle in order to gain knowledge.

What is happening today with the government’s secrecy policies is no different from what was happening in England over three hundred years ago. In both cases, the public is being deprived of the right to know about the government’s actions. John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon described the importance of investigating the government in a series of political essays written in the early 18^th century entitled Cato’s Letters. The essays appeared in London weekly newspapers and were structured as letters to the editor, with both men writing under the alias of “Cato”. They argued that by being privy to political affairs, the public would use their knowledge and judge the government’s actions by their own moral codes. Therefore the people would know whether or not the government was acting on their behalf, and if they were not there would certainly need to be changes made.

To those who argue that access to certain information is dangerous, they most likely have something to hide. The suggestion of the government being afraid of the truth is also found in Cato’s Letters. In essay No. 15 Of freedom of speech: that the same is inseparable from publick liberty., it says that those who oppose freedom of speech are simply afraid of the truth and that only “wicked” governors fear the truth. If the government’s actions are virtuous and in the best interest of the public, then they shall have nothing to fear.

In order to better understand the plight of the journalists of today and their limited access to certain information, it is necessary to define the role of the journalist today and what his or her purpose is. According to The Elements of Journalism, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s book regarding the relationship between journalism and democracy, the purpose of journalism is to provide people with the information they need in order to be free and self-governing. The loyalty of journalists always lies with the public and it is their duty to keep them informed. With these new policies of secrecy, the government is depriving journalists of the right to provide their service to the people.

The government’s recent attempts at secrecy are very disheartening to the country as a whole, but the United States is still one of the best countries in terms of press freedom. In a country such as North Korea, the press works simply as a mouthpiece for the government. Television sets and radios are preset to government stations and many of the country’s citizens have very little knowledge of the world outside of their repressed nation. When examining recent attempts at journalistic censorship in the United States, we must look back at the principles of which this country was founded on that make us so different from a country such as North Korea. Journalistic censorship of any kind shakes the very foundation of this great nation.