Last week was Sunhine Week, a time for the national media organizations and good-government groups to report on efforts to encourage transparency in government. Given the theme, it might have been a good time for President Barack Obama to tout his administration’s success in fulfilling his campaign promise to create “the most transparent administration in history.” Instead, news agencies and good- government groups reported that the Obama administration has been no friend of openness in government.

The Associated Press wrote this week that “for the second consecutive year, the Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.”

The AP report also noted the Obama administration often refused to turn over files, dragged out responding or claimed the documents could not be located. The backlog of unanswered requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)grew by 55 percent, to 200,000, by the end of last year.

Suggesting intentional stonewalling, the AP reported the Obama administration admitted, when challenged in the courts, that it was wrong to have blocked access — at least in about 30 percent of the cases where it initially refused to turn over documents or heavily censored them.

The AP analysis covered FOIA requests to 100 federal agencies, not just the White House.

The Obama administration says it has a good record on transparency, but its figures do not include any requests where the government claimed it could not find the requested records, or when the requester refused to pay the fee for copies or when the government decided the request was unreasonable.

When the AP requested information about who pays for Michelle Obama’s expensive dresses, many lines of the documents were blacked out. But one line still visible read, “We live in constant fear of upsetting the White House.”

Beyond stonewalling, years-long delays and flat-out refusing to honor FOIA requests, the Obama administration has earned a reputation for being tougher on information leakers than any other administration. The Obama administration has prosecuted more leakers than any other.

The Obama administration also drew criticism when it was revealed the U.S. Justice Department had seized the phone records of AP reporters while investigating a potential leak at the CIA.

In a move with ironic timing, the White House announced last week — in the middle of Sunshine Week — that it would exempt the Office of Administration, part of the executive branch, from FOIA requests.

The Office of Administration handles human resources, e-mail archiving and information technology for the White House. It had been subject to FOIA requests since it was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

The White House defended the retreat on transparency saying it was following the same policy as the George W. Bush administration. Good-government groups blasted the move.

In addition, that defense generated charges of hypocrisy. As a presidential candidate and critic of the Bush administration, Obama pledged to operate a more transparent presidency. But once in office, his administration has abandoned that pledge, and says “the Bush administration did the same thing” as a defense for this administration’s latest move to deflect sunshine from shining on the workings of the Obama administration.

A handful of veteran journalists have said the Obama adminstration is the most hostile toward the press they’ve seen and also the least respectful of press freedoms. That might or might not be true, but there seems to be little doubt that Obama has failed to live up to his pledge of creating the most transparent presidency in history.