Christopher Dodd Quotes

It is not to benefit CBS, not to benefit its reporters. On this one, the entire basis of it is this is a way to get more information, more important information to the public. And that's why so many states recognize this.

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.

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

There is no country on earth with a stronger tradition of protecting the public's right to know.

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

That's the place we're in right now: we think we have the capability to get every piece of information, and we don't. We don't know what's going on behind the closed curtain. If we want to say we live in a free democratic society, we should be able to find out whatever we want to.

Right to Information is a small concrete step in making our polity more democratic.

Information is the currency of democracy. It's denial must always be suspect.

It is beyond dispute that President Obama and his aides have an extreme, even unprecedented obsession with concealing embarrassing information, controlling the flow of information, and punishing anyone who stands in the way. But, at least theoretically speaking, it is the job of journalists to impede that effort, not to serve and enable it.

Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?

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.

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

The present trend toward Government secrecy could end in a dictatorship. The more information there is made available, the greater will be the nation’s security.

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.

I believe that the American People have a right to know what was done in their name..

The media helps keep government honest.

The American public has a right to know what's going on.

Do we have the right to understand the world we live in? The right to all the information regarding why our governments are making the decisions that they are?

You can offer the ability to citizens to choose from one of the two parties and elect their leaders as much as you want. But "democracy" is an illusion - a sham - if the most significant acts taken by those leaders are kept concealed from the citizenry.

People will never know how hard it is to get information, especially if it's locked up behind official doors where, if politicians had their way, they'd stamp 'top secret' on the color of the walls.

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.

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

Access to presidential materials should be as wide as possible.

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.

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