Who Needs to Know?; The State of Public Access to Federal Government Information

In recent years, there has been a great deal of debate about the suppression of federal government information on the basis of national or homeland security. Who Needs to Know? helps readers assess the impact of the various trends and forces on the ability of the public to find, obtain, and use federal government information. It presents some of the recent history of withdrawn access, looks at the controls that have been imposed on public access in a variety of arenas, and explores the tension between the efforts of government officials to provide meaningful public access in non-security related areas and the concerns of the private sector about the impact of such efforts. This is an essential resource for anyone who wants to understand what his or her government is doing, how to interact with it, how to engage with public policy decision-making, and how to hold government--and those who act on its behalf or under its regulation--accountable. Written by Patrice McDermott, Ph.D., Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, this book presents the history and the current state of the public's right-to-know from someone who has been at the forefront of the fight to make federal government information accessible to "we, the people."