Access Denied - How Bush is Destroying Freedom of Info (UK Guardian)

America's strong tradition of freedom of information is being seriously threatened by the Bush administration, writes Matthew Kasper

Two years ago, George Bush signed an executive order limiting the release of former presidential records in order to "protect national security".

...To many, the future of freedom of information in the US has never looked more fragile.

...The FOIA establishes a presumption that records held by agencies and departments of the executive branch of the US government are accessible to the people. This was a marked change in how information was previously released... With the passage of the FOIA, the burden of proof switched from the individual to the government: the "need to know" standard was replaced by the "right to know" doctrine...

In 1996, the then president Bill Clinton expanded the powers of the FOIA to extend into the electronic media. He praised the FOIA as "an effective legal right of access to government information, underscoring the critical need in a democracy for open access to government information by citizens".

Full article:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1013361,00.html