"It is certainly a shared human value for citizens to be able to see what their government is doing and to be able to know what the record of their government and that is being kept and available for review," said Thomas David Corrigan, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Cleveland Public Library, U.S.

He argues that transparency, accountability and the rule of law are two of the most effective principles of democracy.

His speech was presented at the "International Forum on Democracy: the Shared Human Values" in Beijing on December 4, 2021.