WASHINGTON — A Thai mother's request under the country's fledgling freedom of information law changed the way children from wealthy families were favored for admission to elementary schools. An open access law in Canada revealed excessive travel costs by a top politician, including $27 glasses of orange juice. Information about Romania's government spying on its citizens surfaced for the first time under its anti-secrecy law.

Around the globe, a growing number of countries are passing laws that give citizens the right to examine government records and other previously secret information. Some 61 countries now have such laws, more than half adopted in the last decade.

"A new era of government transparency has arrived," said David Banisar, who surveyed open government laws worldwide on behalf of freedominfo.org, an online network of freedom of information advocates. "It is now widely recognized that the culture of secrecy that has been the modus operandi of governments for centuries is no longer feasible in a global age of information."

But there is a twist: As other countries appear to embrace more transparency, experts say the United States is moving toward greater government secrecy. Once-public information is being restricted or, in some cases, erased from Web sites.

America remains one of the most open governments, but open government advocates are concerned.

"Ironically, secrecy has made the most dramatic comeback in the country that purports to be the most democratic," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, a nonprofit group based in Washington that preserves previously classified documents.

Once the model of openness for emerging democracies, the United States is now classifying more materials than ever. Bush administration officials say the Sept. 11 terror attacks are the main reason.

In its first three years, the Bush administration made at least 58.7 million decisions to classify records and related documents, according to the federal government's Information Security Oversight Office. By comparison, the Clinton administration classified 65.6 million records during its entire eight years in office. On average, Bush administration officials each year have been classifying more than twice as many records and related documents as Clinton officials.

The Justice Department disputes the notion that the American government has become too secretive.

"The American government is the most open government in the world despite the fact that terrorists and enemies of our Democracy are intent on planning and plotting against innocent Americans," said John Nowacki, a spokesperson for the department, which plays a leading role in monitoring requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act. "The department carefully balances public interest with our mission of keeping the American public safe from harm."

Given the continuing terrorist threat, Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn thinks it's understandable that officials would be more cautious about releasing information. But he said there is too much secrecy and not enough enforcement of existing freedom of information statutes.

"What we need to do is change the culture in Washington from one that assumes that the public should be excluded . . .to one where the burden is really on the agency to demonstrate why (information) should be kept confidential," said Cornyn, who has been crafting legislation to strengthen the federal Freedom of Information Act.

While emerging democracies are enacting freedom of information laws, some open government advocates say many are more symbolic than substantive. Enforcement remains a problem. As a result, some wonder whether the new laws are truly providing citizens with much information.

Scott Armstrong, executive director of Information Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit that champions freedom of expression and government accountability, said secrecy still trumps disclosure in most governments despite the growing number of countries passing freedom of information laws.

"I'd like to tell you it is a great sweep of liberalism," Armstrong said. "When you get down to the nitty gritty, no one is opening the valves very far."

Banisar, author of the global study examining open access laws, said it is true that in some countries, such as Zimbabwe, freedom of information laws exist in name only. But he insisted that in most countries the laws are truly working to pry open information that was once secret.

For example, Sumalee Limpaovart used the new Thai access law several years ago to challenge her daughter's rejection from an elite state-run elementary school. Under the law, Limpaovart obtained test results that showed her daughter had scored the same as one third of the students who had been admitted. The only difference between her daughter and the other children was prestige, wealth and donations to the school.

Limpaovart filed a complaint with the State Council, Thailand's version of a Constitutional Court, arguing that the school had violated a provision in the country's Constitution that bans discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, place of birth, age, and social or economic status. The council not only agreed with Limpaovart, but soon abolished the practice of privileged admissions.

South Africa has one of the most progressive laws in the world. Under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, which took effect four years ago, citizens can request information from private companies as well as from the government.

After encountering a "wall of silence" from the South African government about when reparations payments would be delivered to those who suffered under Apartheid, a victims advocacy group used the new law to gain access to information from the government about its policy.

A Cape Town businessman recently used the law to show irregularities and political interference in a contract he lost to a company with connections to the head of acquisition for the country's defense department.

In addition, two South African nonprofit groups banded together to use the law to force the government to release its treatment plan for the country's rapidly growing HIV-AIDS population.

The Open Democracy Advice Centre and Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) found unequal plans in each of the country's provinces to help those in need at a time when more people are getting the virus that causes AIDS.

"I think the big shift in the last ten years is that people realize that this is not the law just for journalists, that it is a law for all citizens," said Richard Calland, executive director of the nonprofit Open Democracy Advice Centre, which focuses on freedom of information issues.

Calland said citizens are starting to realize that it is their right to see government documents and that they actually own those documents as taxpayers. He added that they are now using the law to hold their government accountable.

"We have a saying that 'the right to know is the right to live,'" said Calland, who currently is using the freedom of information law to force South Africa's four major political parties to reveal their financial contributors.

Calland said that access to public information is a fundamental human right that is especially important for poor people and those living on the margins of society. "With information, people can act," he said.

"We've used the law to make sure that there is greater transparency and accountability," said Fatima Hassain, an attorney with TAC in South Africa. She believes that the law should go even farther to address urgent requests for information.

Open government was under assault in the United States before Sept. 11, experts say, but official secrecy became rampant after the terror attacks.

"What has happened is secrecy has gone far beyond what might be justified by legitimate security concerns and become almost arbitrary in its scope and application," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

Five years ago, the federal government sold telephone directories listing all Defense Department employees and their office numbers. Today, that telephone directory is stamped "For Official Use Only" and is no longer for sale.

"There is a new wall that has gone up between the government and the people," said Aftergood, who tracks secrecy issues in an electronic newsletter called Secrecy News.

Government Web sites, once full of information, have been purged and important information about the public's health and safety are gone. The Federal Aviation Administration removed records from the Internet on enforcement actions taken against airlines, pilots and mechanics. The Environmental Protection Agency eliminated information about chemical accidents from its Web site, making it harder for citizens to find out about hazards in their communities.

"There has been a wholesale retreat from public access to information (and) as a result, our democracy is being impoverished," Aftergood said.

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the United States was seen as the world leader in open government, press freedom and related issues, said Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan government watchdog group based in Washington.

"Since Sept. 11, the U.S. has regressed, there's no other word for it," Lewis said.

Throughout much of the developing world, he said, "The concept of openness has become synonymous with progress and accountability."

"That is what makes the regression in the United States so disturbing," he added.