Obama transparency record mixed

Barack Obama made transparency and openness a central theme of his campaign, but the new administration could be more forthcoming about how business gets done in the White House, a coalition of journalists, watchdog groups and public interest organizations says.

“The Obama administration so far has a very mixed record on its promise of unprecedented openness,” said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, which issued a report on transparency in the Obama administration.

Transparency was a signature campaign issue for Obama during his campaign in 2008. But Obama’s rhetorical calls for openness and sunshine have proven harder for the president to put into practice.

Obama has gathered recommendations from citizens to improve transparency. And he’s won plaudits for saying that government disclosure, not secrecy, should be the default position for requests made through the Freedom of Information Act.

More recently, the administration said that it would voluntarily release the names of White House visitors, which no president has done before.

But Obama has also stopped the disclosure of detainee photographs, his Justice Department has relied upon the state secrets privilege in lawsuits and he has used executive privilege to keep documents from the Bush administration hidden.

Those actions continue a trend toward secrecy by the government since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the report says.

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