Some said he was a cheerleader of transparency and a defender of the public's right to know.

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Courts refused to block the release of the rankings, saying the public's right to know outweighed teacher-privacy concerns.

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It says that, in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, there's been a "campaign of intimidation against the public's right to know".

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But guidance issued by Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, suggests that he, at least, will be tempted to err on the side of the public's right to know.

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Young journalist Amila Prabodha Gamage thinks that while journalists may need to consider national security - as the country is at war - that doctrine should not unduly interfere with the public's right to know the truth.

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It won't provide the public with any greater right to know anything more about the company's food.

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The public has a right to know that it was Mr. Bernstein's organization, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, that filed a lawsuit three months ago against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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