Governments in democratic societies should not restrict the public’s access to information, even if it is of a sensitive or classified nature. Write a response in which you examine your own position on the statement. Explore the extent to which you either

Proponents of a completely transparent government whereby even classified information is available to the public have made arguments over the years that this is a correct action. However, a close examination of the issue reveals that such an extreme action whereby even classified information could become available to the public would cause danger to the government’s public, weaken a countries defenses, and clandestine agencies would be unable to investigate effectively. There is minor merit in the notion that there should be transparency between a government and its people, but it is an erroneous belief that declassifying information would prove beneficial to the general public.

First, if classified information were available to the general public, in America, plans on how to build a nuclear bombs would allow terrorist the ability to build and consequently destroy American cities. The danger presented from disclosing sensitive information to the public could become disastrous if highly dangerous information were available to everyone.

Second, not only would the dissemination of sensitive information pose a threat to the general public, but key military information could allow the enemies of a country to attack more effectively than ever before. For example, during WW2, as the Nazi’s occupied France, some highly classified information in regard to the Allied forces war strategy was discovered by the Nazi’s. This dramatically weakened the war effort on the Allies behalf. Although this information was taken by the Nazi’s, rather than given out freely by France, the point is that strategic information on the military moves can be tantalizingly powerful for the enemy of a country.

Third, by giving the public access to all information of government programs and actions, clandestine agencies such as the FBI, CIA, OSI, and Secret Service would be at an tremendous disadvantage when doing investigations. If for example a suspect were aware by means of accessing public knowledge that the FBI were tracking their actions, then surely the suspect could evade such tracking and avoid ever being caught. Declassifying information to the general public would prove deleterious to not only the public, the enemies of the state, but also to the men and women who investigate through clandestine operations to apprehend criminals.

In a final analysis, one could surmise that in a utopian world that complete transparency of information between the government and anybody would be a milestone for the human race. Unfortunately, the dangers presented with making all information available to everyone is far to great for any sort of benefit. From the dangers of the potential building of a nuclear bomb to weakening a country to hindering the work for agencies like the FBI, information should not be disseminated freely, and especially not classified information.