Discuss the issue of increasing secrecy and lack of transparency has a lot of implications on the Obama Administration.

The issue of increasing secrecy and lack of transparency has a lot of implications on the Obama Administration. I support the idea of free press and for it to flourish in a democracy, it is important for the government to exercise a lot of transparency and access of the media to its information. President Obama’s administration, however, limits free press by emphasizing on secrecy of public information and records. Denying the media access to important information (of public interest) means curtailing the right of the citizens to information. In a modern democracy like the United States, the government is expected to exercise more freedom towards the media and the citizens. I also believe the idea of barring the media from access to the public records is wrong because it goes against the promise that Obama made during his campaigns. Honoring his campaigns means allowing more access by reducing secrecy.
The access laws are necessary but they are limited to certain circumstances. The only information that the media should not access should be the information that affects national security. Under the circumstances of national security, the government can rightfully limit the media’s access to such information. The report, however, shows that the government has restricted the media from accessing information that lacks implications on national security. The government has implemented programs in all its departments, preventing the people who work under the departments from sharing (with the press) any information that the government classifies as a secret. Such restrictions are bad as they prevent the media from exercising its watch-dog role. For the media to check the excesses and mistakes of the government, it needs access to the information that the government is hiding through the tough access laws. I have experienced the problem when interviewing a government officer. He avoided sharing many details of the interview with me because there is a code of secrecy at his workplace. The government should, therefore, exercise more transparency in its departments.