Authoritarian regimes do not only like to foster nationalist thought – thus creating questions to which they are supposedly the answer – they also are characterized by a ‘culture’ of secrecy which ordinarily surpasses by far the exigencies of defence and is in clear violation of the tenets of accountability and transparency adhered to by democratic, open societies.

In this publication we asked leading international experts to look at secrecy legislation and regulations in comparative perspective. As most emerging democracies will go through similar birth pains we hope to give indications as to what is secrecy, who may declare information or objects secret, and under what circumstances.