In President Barack Obama’s first days as president, he pledged to have his administration create an “unprecedented level of openness in government.” His chief of staff, Jack Lew, has contended the administration is the “most transparent administration ever.” At a rally in 2010, he told the public, “We have put in place the toughest ethics [...]

A foundation dedicated to promoting and funding transparency journalism, which launched on December 16, has concluded its first round of funding for organizations. It has enjoyed incredible success and found there are a lot of people who want to support this kind of an organization. The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) raised nearly $200,000 for [...]

The Cold War system of classifying and declassifying information held by United States government agencies is “overly complex,” “keeps too many secrets” for too long and obstructs information sharing inside government and with the public, according to a report produced by a board of individuals that President Barack Obama ordered on classified information. As part [...]

(update 1 & 2 below) A foundation dedicated to promoting and funding aggressive journalism and media organizations that push for transparency and accountability in government is launching on Monday. Called the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), it hopes to help organizations like WikiLeaks combat censorship and even prevent the watering down of coverage because [...]

Searches for “WikiLeaks” in the public search engine for the US National Archives have been blocked, according to a posting at Cryptome.org. Any search containing the word “WikiLeaks (like “Congress” and “WikiLeaks”) turns up an error message. WikiLeaks reacted on Twitter, “The US National Archives has literally turned into Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.” In another [...]

President Barack Obama has issued a directive that appears to finally provide whistleblower protections for intelligence agency employees in government. The directive declares employees able to access classified information “can effectively report waste, fraud and abuse while protecting classified national security information.” It also includes a “prohibition” against retaliation against employees, who report “waste, fraud [...]

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange addressed members of the United Nations at an event with Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino and Center for Constitutional Rights legal director Baher Azmy. He spoke to members on the current status of his asylum case and how the United States currently is engaged in a wide investigation into members of [...]

A military appeals court, the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces (CAAF), has scheduled oral argument in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which challenges secrecy in the court martial proceedings of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks. The lawsuit calls for Army Colonel [...]

Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, an advocate for human rights, justice and the rule of law, is running for president as a Justice Party candidate. He accepted the nomination in January and has been working to raise awareness on key issues and organize people around the country with his campaign. I interviewed Anderson [...]

The Washington Post has published an article on an analysis of annual reports from government agencies the Post did, which is further proof—despite President Barack Obama’s promise of unprecedented transparency in government—he has presided over a government that in some ways is more secretive than ever before. The newspaper looked at his commitment to seemingly enhance the [...]