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Re:Why I will not analyze the new WikiLeaks data by nickpinkston on Monday November 29, 2010 @12:49AM (#1949520)
Good point surely, but I'm trying to think of something that will actually happen in our political climate. Of course I'd prefer complete openness, but they'd never do it...
Re:Why I will not analyze the new WikiLeaks data by anthonyb on Monday November 29, 2010 @01:52AM (#1949618)
The problem is that the government gets to decide what's super secret and what's not, so you'll get a gradual erosion of information as more and more stuff gets marked as secret, even when it's just embarrassing or difficult to handle.

A similar thing happens with FOI requests here in Australia - there's an exemption for material which is 'commercial in-confidence'. Now pretty much everything that the government produces is marked as commercial in-confidence, and it's back to the old system of suing the government to release information.

Far better to have people leak stuff and then be protected under whistleblower / freedom of the press laws if it's in the public interest (with presumption that it is in the public interest, so the government has to bring a case to prove that it's not).