Daily Ideas

We live in a new era, as seen in such varied efforts to suppress information as expense fiddling by British parliamentarians, Beijing’s censorship of Tiananmen Square, and libel laws that deter reporting on terrorism. A growing list of institutions and countries find themselves on the wrong side of this shift in expectations. Information that was once locked away is fair game, and anyone who refuses to play by the new rules is presumed guilty of having something to hide.