I agree, it should never be up to a government man to decide which government secrets the public can hear about.
If the government wants to assemble a non-governmental board of oversight that's immune from interference from the government, and that will inspect every secret document available, evaluate if the public would benefit from hearing from it, and release it if they think it's in the public's interest (no matter if government agents ends up shamed, imprisoned, or just disagree), I'm all for it.
Governments have proven for the last several thousand years of history that they do not give a damn about laws and morals, and will do whatever feels expedient in a certain situation, irrespective of anyone getting fucked over, killed, silenced, or otherwise harmed in the process.