Roy Barnes Quotes

I don't think that any government has a right to subvert the truth or to cover up the truth, and all I see WikiLeaks doing is exposing the truth.

The better the information it has, the better democracy works. Silence and secrecy are never good for it.

The veil of secrecy must be lifted and the attempted dumbing down of the Australian people by restricting their right to know must be fought.

National security is the fig leaf against freedom of information.

WikiLeaks' disclosures should be protected under the First Amendment.

Wikileaks has - we specialize in bringing the First Amendment to the world, and we were always very surprised one of our biggest battles would be trying to bring it to the United States under an Obama administration.

Our public officials have forgotten that they are ultimately accountable to the people who put them in office, that the information they keep in secrecy belongs to all of us.

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.

What I'm thinking about more and more these days is simply the importance of transparency, and Jefferson's saying that he'd rather have a free press without a government than a government without a free press.

Whistle-blowing and publishing should not be seen as a crime, and certainly not as terrorism.

The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.

In order to encourage the free interchange of opinion and the enlightenment of the public, every Swedish subject shall have free access to official documents.

Why does the White House sometimes seem so determined to close the door on the people's right to know what their government is doing?

The people have the right to know what their Agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in the option of the Legislature to conceal their proceedings.

Sweeping privilege against disclosure is…contrary to a sound public policy…It is a small step to assert a privilege against any disclosure of records merely because they might prove embarrassing.

No government ought to be without censors: & where the press is free, no one ever will.

Can the public business be thus transacted and in secret?

No man ought to be hindered saying or writing what he pleases on the conduct of those who undertake the management of national affairs, in which all are concerned, and therefore have the right to inquire, and to publish their suspicions concerning them. For if you punish the slanderer, you deter the fair inquirer.

A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.

Our government cannot function cloaked in secrecy. It cannot function unless officials tell the truth.

The overarching purpose of access to information legislation … is to facilitate democracy. It does so in two related ways. It helps to ensure first, that citizens have the information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process, and secondly, that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry.

… a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.

Usually the public is better off with more information than less. That includes information the government would like to keep quiet.

Most leaks from large bureaucracies are “good” leaks: no danger to national security, no harm to innocent people, information the public ought to know.

To Any Officer or Employee of the Government: Please tell Mr. Lincoln Steffens anything whatever about the government that you know (not incompatible with the public interest) and provided only that you tell him the truth—no matter what it might be—I will see to it that you are not hurt. T. Roosevelt.