A Troubling Lack of Transparency

Back in March, a new directive issued by the Office of National Intelligence was quietly posted on its website. The directive, among other guidelines, prohibited officials within 17 different agencies from speaking to journalists about “unclassified intelligence-related topics” without permission, and additionally obligated “employees to report any unplanned contact with journalists.” It’s easy to see why the announcement was kept so low-key, as this is a large step toward increased secrecy under the Obama administration. While we respect the need for national security and safety, the recent directive also takes away from the freedom of the press and the public’s access to knowing about their own government.

While campaigning in 2008, Obama promised that his administration would be the most transparent in history. However, the government’s new directive is not the only event to have proved this statement wrong. The administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined, and last year the Justice Department was reported to have secretly obtained several months’ worth of telephone records from employees of the Associated Press in order to investigate how the press gathered their news, and from what sources. There is a fine line between safety and over-secrecy, inquiry and intrusion; agencies under the Obama administration have, in our opinion, crossed this line.

The right to freedom of the press was established to keep the people informed; and while the government reserves the ability to keep certain classified material from the public for our own safety, it is harmful to our very democracy when taken too far. There is a reason we go to news sources, not the government, to be informed. If the government were to dictate exactly what the press could and could not know, then this would defeat the purpose of news sources in the first place.

Intelligence officials might argue that the new directive would only make uniform rules that were already “generally” in place across several agencies. But what it does instead is build another wall between the government and the public, and make any employee’s interaction with journalists a possible reason to be fired or even prosecuted. It does not instill uniformity, but rather new punishments and restrictions for governmental agencies’ communications with the press.

We, The Crimson, believe in the right to an open, transparent government, such that journalists can do their job, and the public stays aware. The recent directive signed by the director of National Intelligence is one of several measures taken by the government to impede such values, and we hope that these actions are reconsidered.