What about the history of these things. CVRs are there for accident investigation, and are accepted by the pilot workforce largely because of assurances that these details are not used in criminal proceding against the crew or released to the general public.
We know why these aircraft crashed. I'd also support criminal investigators attempting to gather evidence or intelligence against the terrorists. But thats as far as it goes.
Tin Kicker, your point is well made. However, its not as though we are the only people holding others lives in our hands, or making safety critical decisions.
But by logical extension, I will accept that any individual can have CVR details of my flight, if and only if they agree to carry a recorder of all their work activities and allow me access to that.
For example, I might reasonably expect to see a transcript of all the design meetings of the engineers who designed the aircraft I fly, or the company trainers when they discuss the changes to operating procedures, or CAA staff discussing regulatory changes, or intelligence agencies assessments of terrorist threats, etc etc..
As per usual, the cockpit is perceived to be the place where accidents are caused, and as such the centre of interest for the public. And yet we all know that the cockpit just happens to be the place where the final link in the safety chain breaks.
If the general public is really interested, then they need to go and get a scientific, technical and operational education about airliners. Say by getting a pilots licence, at which point they might actually understand what was on the transcript.
Anything else in just sensationalism.
CPB