REAGAN TIGHTENS GRIP ON PUBLIC'S RIGHT TO KNOW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100040074-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 22, 2012
• Sequence Number: 74
• Publication Date: February 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Si Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP91-
THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR
8 February 1982
Reagan tightens grip on public's right to know
WAFFLING, FUMBLING and behind-
the-scene cheats may be occasionally re-
deemable acts when committed by Ameri-
can presidents. At least we've learned over
time to think so..
It appears that every president since
Franklin D. Roosevelt has had a hand in
some sort of snookery-a distressing
thought, and apparently true.
Likely no administration, however, has
strived so fervently-and so openly-for a -
closed government as Ronald Reagan's
has. According to the Society of Profess
sional Journalists (a partisan group, yes,
with a vested interest in gathering facts
the government would rather not tell), this
administration deserves "a failing grade"
for its stance on almost every issue involv-
ing openness in government.
The administration "consistently took
actions last year that would restrict the
flow of information about the federal gov-
ernment to the people who pay for it," the
group said late last month. The adminis-
tration's behavior, it said, constituted "a
fundamental assault on the First Amend-.
ment."
DITO TALL
Besides holding fewer news conferences
than any first-year president in at least 50
years, the journalists fault Reagan for his
action on virtually every other "'openness
in government" subject: White House at-
tempts to plug "politically inopportune
-news leaks," and claims that ''executive
privilege" applies to the entire executive
branch "deliberative process" are trou-
bling, of course. And CIA cutbacks on pub-
lic information throw roadblocks in the
way of citizens who want to know what
the government is plotting.
But that's the least of it. Administration
efforts to downgrade the Freedom of In-
formation Act, making it easier for gov-
ernment to withhold information from the
public, have been embraced by a Senate
Judiciary subcommittee. And an executive
order aiding government agencies in clas-
,sifying information as "top secret" almost
at whim-and making declassification)
more difficult-smacks of pure secrecy.
Worst of all, perhaps, is the administra-
tion's support of the so-called "names ofi
agents" bill-already passed by the
House-which would, for the first time,
criminalize the publication of information
taken straight from public records. If it
does become,law, journalists, and ordinary
citizens as well, could go to prison simply
for writing down the names of CIA em-
ployees. _, .
t Next come the thought police. 'During
the 1980 campaign, everyone remembers,
Reagan vowed to "get government off the,
backs of the people." He has accomplished
dome of that in ways that suit him, violat-
ing a democratic precept at the same time.
The people, as the journalists observed,
dare hardly in a position to hold their gov-
`ernment accountable if they are prevented
from learning what it is doing.",
Openness is a requirement of democra
and secrecy an American disaster.
-Kate Stanley
:for The Minneapolis Star'='
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/22 : CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100040074-6