Countries around the world are embracing laws promoting openness in government, according to an updated global survey for freedominfo.org, a web site operated by the National Security Archive and other openness advocates. Over 50 countries have adopted freedom-of-information laws similar to the United States' Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which guarantees the public's right to access documents held by most of the executive branch. More than half of these governments passed these laws within the last decade.

Only two companies and two associations have submitted information to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that will be kept secret under the Critical Infrastructure Information (CII) program, according to an April 21 testimony. At the time of the testimony, DHS had been operating the program for two months.

The federal government too often uses terrorism and national security as an excuse to keep unnecessary secrets. There is a great need for more information from government to make our families and communities safer, and this need has been clearly articulated in the results of a survey released last week by OpenTheGovernment.org, a new coalition aimed at fighting secrecy and strengthening democracy.