Governments can gatekeep information. A veteran journalist explains why and how to champion transparency

In a talk with San Francisco Public Press publisher Lila LaHood last week, veteran journalist Miranda Spivack discussed government secrecy, a practice for which many local authorities have a growing penchant.

Currently a freelance reporter for the New York Times and other publications, Spivack has spent much of her career chronicling how governments gatekeep or conceal public records. Some of that reporting has appeared in Reveal as “State Secrets,” an investigative series awarded the Sunshine Award by the Society for Professional Journalists in 2017, and in her 20 years at different Washington Post publications.