Declass Board Tells Obama Openness is "At Risk"
<http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/03/at_risk.html>
In a new letter <http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/03/pidb030609.html> to
President Obama, the Public Interest Declassification Board warned that
reliable public access to government information, the very foundation of
representative democracy, may be in jeopardy.
Although "our Board was heartened by your early statements and actions on
openness in Government," wrote Board acting chairman Martin Faga
<http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/03/pidb030609.html> to the President on
March 6, "we have to sound a note of alarm about how well the Government is
doing in this area."
"In fact, we have concluded that this fundamental principle of
self-government" - that is, citizen access to information about Government -
"is at risk and, without decisive action, the situation is likely to
worsen."
The Public Interest Declassification Board
<http://www.archives.gov/declassification/pidb/index.html> was established
by Congress in 2000 to advise the president on declassification policy and
practice. Board members are appointed by the White House and Congress.
Mr. Faga, a former director of the National Reconnaissance Office,
identified <http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/03/pidb030609.html> several
structural and procedural factors that he said impede declassification,
including inadequate resources, coordination and leadership, as well as poor
management of digital records. "Future historians may find that the paper
records of early American history provide a more reliable historical account
than the inchoate mass of digital communications of the current era."
Although the Board's mission focuses on declassification of historical
records, the Board has also taken an interest in classification policy and
has called for a revision to the executive order on classification.
"Serious attention to the classification process itself is needed to ensure
that it supports declassification and to address the particularly
challenging and long-standing issue of over-classification," the Board's
letter <http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/03/pidb030609.html> said.
A presidential directive initiating a revision of the executive order on
classification policy is believed to be imminent.
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Mark Perkins MLIS, MCLIP
www.markperkins.info
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