Richard Nixon Quotes

Citizens need to know how their countries are being run so that they can hold governments and big business to account.

As long as the government's actions are secret, it cannot be held accountable. A government for the people and by the people should be transparent to the people.

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.

Even in non-democratic countries, people have a legitimate interest in knowing about actions taken by the government.

We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.

The people have a right to know—no, a duty to know—what the army is doing in our name.

We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows

It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.

Americans have a right to know what is being done in their name…. These cables tell the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions.

It is wise to keep the mass of people in ignorance of disaster that may be immediately repaired, or of follies or even vices in government which may be repressed before they become dangerous.

Although governments will also benefit from improved access to information, increased transparency will allow people at home and abroad to better observe and critique what governments do and to hold leaders accountable for their decisions. As a result, governments will find it harder to adopt strategies that require secrecy or violate international norms.

Ask yourself, have you ever heard any of your PAP MPs ask the hard questions? As a Singaporean, you have a right to information that the Government is refusing to answer.

Even if you assume presidents were democratically elected they still have no right to keep secrets from the American people.

One of the problems of not allowing the American people to read what bin Laden has said is that in October 2001 just after the war began in Afghanistan, he gave a speech that had two parts to it.

Ever since I arrived in Washington in April 2009, I have been fighting for more transparency and accountability in government.

Any unveiling is also veiling. No matter how transparent our governments want to be, governments will be selectively transparent.

We should be able to go to our government and get clear answers.

In a democracy, citizens pass judgment on their government, and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing, they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

On taking office, Obama promised the 'most transparent' administration in history; yet his record as president has been anything but transparent.

Obama has already rejected the bright sunlight of public knowledge, which is democracy's great disinfectant and cure.

Everyone knows about the substantive issues of concern, like federal health care, but very little is said about the process, the lack of accountability.

Whenever the government says, 'It's time to move on,' that means there's something they don't want you to know about.

Voters cannot hold officials responsible if they do not know what government is doing, or which parts of government are doing what.

Thank God we have a press that tells us what you guys are doing.

We as citizens should hold our government accountable for word and deed.