accountability reinforced

As Fred Kaplan reports in Slate, one of the first memoranda by President Barack Obama is a “restoration of the purpose” of the Freedom of Information Act. The Memorandum states, inter alia, “A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency,” and: “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”