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FOI Commentary

How effectively are we getting the open government message out? Is our call to the public proactive or largely reactive?

These are two questions we hope every journalist engaged in commentary and opinion writing has asked or will ask themselves. We believe that even a strong and positive response to both will be followed the acknowledgment, “It’s not enough.”

To help provoke new ideas for editorials, columns and op ed pieces, and new ways of looking at open government issues, we offer a selection of opinion pieces we’ve found in our surfing or that have been recommended to us. We’ll keep changing these to share fresh ideas and approaches. We hope you’ll find the selections below useful. If you read a commentary on FOI that you believe is effective, please share it with us. Send it, or the link, to cjog@cjog.net

 

Editorials

With Presidential Candidates on Board, Senate Should Move on Shield Bill

After the three senators running for president told the nation’s publishers and editors that they support for a reporter-source shield law, the Washington Post urged fellow members of the Senate to step up and vote for the legislation that is still pending in their chamber. “One need only look at the aggressive actions taken last month against Toni Locy, formerly of USA Today, to see why the legislation is needed,” the Post said..”She not only was slapped with an onerous fine …but was also prohibited from accepting financial help to pay the fine.” (4/16/08)


Sunshine Week and Open Government Commentary

Sunshine Week 2008 has spurred editorial comment from papers around the country, citing open government issues at the local, state and federal levels. We offer a sampling of the commentary at the links below.


Secrecy Driven Administration Puts Fox in FOIA Henhouse

Editorial writers said the Bush Administration’s effort to undercut the new Freedom of Information Act reform law, creating an ombudsman to oversee the handling information requests, was a classic example of putting the “fox in the henhouse,” a “slyness in subverting new Congressional law,” and an effort to “hobble the OPEN Act’s purpose of ensuring that FOIA requesters get a fair hearing from an independent source.” A sampling below. (2/7/08)


It's Time to Include Text Messaging Under Records Laws

“The immediacy of today's technological age is presenting a new battleground in the ongoing skirmish over public access to governmental correspondence,” the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel said, arguing that Florida needs to move quickly to update its public records law to include text messages send by public officials. (3/24/08)

Political Campaigns Need Some Sunshine

Noting that a quick Google News search turns up more than 4,000 articles and commentaries on government secrecy, the Nashua Telegraph told its readers it plans to make open government a central part of its campaign coverage and commentary on contests from city council to president. (3/25/08)

Washington State Should Pass Transparency in Budget Bill

A bill to bring more transparency to state government spending has passed the Washington state Senate unanimously. The Olympian is urging the House and Gov. Chris Gregoire to follow the Senate’s lead. The bill was stripped of two information services: disclosing which consultants are getting state business and who is giving money to candidates for public office. The bill now requires the state to establish and make public a searchable state expenditure Web site. (2/26/08)

Keep Utah Police Misconduct Records Public

The Salt Lake Tribune rallies against a new bill that would make confidential all records of police misconduct. Currently open for public inspection, these records would be kept confidential unless the officer appeals a sanction or voluntarily agrees to disclosure. The issue has pitted the Utah Media Coalition (including The Salt Lake Tribune) and freedom of information advocates against police associations and other city officials. The Tribune argued, “Police supervisors believe they are protecting all police officers, when in fact, they are only protecting the guilty.” (2/20/08)

Louisiana's Office of the Governor: Too Much Privelege?

The Louisiana Advocate urged members of the legislature to pass a bill narrowing the exemptions from the Public Records Law for the Office of the Governor. The bill, proposed by Rep. Wayne Waddell, R-Shreveport, limits the exemption to documents in the direct possession of the governor, his chief of staff and his executive counsel. That privilege has recently grown under the expanded Office of the Governor, which now houses several agencies directly. (2/20/08)

Tennessee Should Leave Alabama in Open Records Dust

The Tennessee Leaf Chronicle urged its state legislature to endorse the state's open government ombudsman by writing the office into law and following other recommendations of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. Among Southern states only Alabama has worse open government laws. Governor Phil Bredesen budgeted $100,000 for the office, but more should be done. The Leaf Chronicle rallied, “Let's leave Alabama in our open records dust this year.” (2/20/08)


Iowa Public Information Board Necessary for Enforcement of FOI

Iowa lawmakers should create a new board to oversee compliance with the state’s open records laws, the Des Moines Register urged. Since the state’s first open records statutes were created in 1967, the number of exemptions has grown and government compliance has faltered, according to investigations by media groups. The five-member Iowa Public Information Board would hear complaints from citizens, mediate disputes, order compliance and levy civil fines up to $2,500. (2/18/08)

Washington Supreme Court Rules to Expand Exemptions

The Longview Daily News denounced a Washington Supreme Court ruling that said the Spokane School District did not have to make public its attorney’s records on the investigation into the death of a student from an allergic reaction to a peanut butter cookie given him at lunch. The editorial, noting that a dissenting judge warned that the ruling “essentially creates a public nondisclosure act,” urged legislators to close the “court-created loophole.” (2/13/08)

Limiting Online Access to Records Like Keeping 2 Sets of Books

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called the proposal by two state representatives to limit access to the state’s online court records well-intentioned and wrongheaded. It quoted Peter Fox of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association: “the (records) site is intended to reflect the actual record of Wisconsin courts, not excerpts thereof. Essentially, this proposal would create two sets of books.” (1/23/08)

Hark, Congress Gives Public a Gift of FOIA Reform Bill

"Lo and behold," said the Denver Post, "federal lawmakers stopped their infighting long enough to bestow a holiday gift on the American public" -- passage of a bill designed to improve agency performance under the Freedom of Information Act. The New York Times allowed that the the bill is no cure-all, but a step toward glaring flaws. Here's a roundup of editorial comment on the bill approved by voice vote in both Houses and sent to the president. (12/27/07)

Accountability? Not When the Invoices Are Heavily Redacted

The Arizona Republic gave readers a taste of the redacted documents Maricopa County’s attorney provided in response to a requests for records of a $2 million contract it has with a private attorney for advice on various cases. The public attorneys even sought outside advice on how much information it could redact in turning over the public records. (1/14/08)

Local Development Corporations Should Be Subject to Sunshine Laws

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle urged that the state modify its sunshine laws to subject local development corporations to open meetings and open records provisions. Noting that the agencies “have a functional tie to government,” the editorial said they should not be allowed to “continue in their limbo between full public accountability and unencumbered private ownership.” (1/8/08)

Separation of Church and State Where, When It Really Counts

“We believe that when the leaders of their state government are reading scriptures to mine guiding principles for public policy, the people have a right to know that. There is no valid reason why that information should be guarded as a secret,” the Salt Lake City Tribune said in an editorial explaining why it pressed for records that former governor Mike Leavitt tried to suppress. The paper said that the line of separation between church and state is particularly important in Utah, and that Leavitt was elected to be the state’s governor, not its preacher. (1/2/08) (1/2/08)

Globe's 2008 Wishes Include Greater Government Transparency

The Boston Globe put open government on its wish list for 2008, along with the civic engagement that citizen access to information can generate. Citing secrecy measures of the Bush Administration – “The most secretive government since J. Edgar Hoover plotted against John Lennon,” the Globe said it hoped the bonds between Americans and a vigilant free press will be strengthened.” (1/2/08)

White House Should Drop Culture of Secrecy

The Waco Tribune censured the Bush Administration for continuing its fight to keep the White House visitor logs from the public by appealing a federal court ruling that the logs are public record. The president, the paper said, By constantly fighting to deny public access to public business, “gives the unavoidable impression that he has a lot to hide.” (1/8/08)

Washington Times: White House Should Heed President's Comments in 2000

The Washington Times suggested that the White House should pay attention to what candidate George W. Bush said in 2000 about federal government transparency and drop its appeal of Judge Royce Lamberth’s order to release visitor logs. The president and vice president content the logs are presidential records and not subject to Freedom of Information Act disclosure. (12/26/07)

Fining of Records Violator a First; Don't Make It the Last

Noting that a county judge convicted and fined a sheriff who willfully violated the Virginia public records act, the Roanoke Times expressed its hope that this “first” won’t be the last. Laws like the open records law, the paper said, “are only as good as the government officials charged with obeying them. Too often citizens hit a wall of bureaucratic obstinacy or secrecy.” (12/27/07)

White House Logs Case a Measure of Contempt

The Sarasota Herald Tribune commented that Judge Royce Lamberth’s order that the White House release its visitor logs will test “just how much contempt the Bush administration holds for open-government laws.” It notes the “memorandum of understanding” Bush quietly signed 18 months ago declaring Secret Service records of White House visitors to be sensitive security information. The president’s response, the paper said, will say much about his integrity. (12/19/07)

Mercury News Urges End to Secret Funding of Governor's Trips

The San Jose Mercury News called Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State Protocol Foundation a sham that provides secret donors with valuable access while making tax deductible contributions to pay for the governor’s travels and urged the California Fair Political Practices Commission to demand more detailed disclosure of trips taken by state officials that are bankrolled by campaign funds. (12/13/07)

Proposed Iowa Open Government Office Winds Register's Backing

The DesMoines Register gave its editorial support to a proposal for new open government enforcement process, with a state board to oversee compliance with open records and meetings laws.  At the same time, it cautioned that the new agency not serve as an excuse to further limit access and weaken the laws. (11/19/07)

Alabama's Two Problems With Greater Transparency

Alabama, the Florence Times commented, has two problems when it comes to government transparency. “One is the lack of political will - and lack of public pressure - to open government processes to public scrutiny. The second is the lack of money and staff to transfer information to public Web sites,”  the paper said.  (11/19/07)

Roanoke on E-Records-Privacy Debate: Stop Collecting Unneed Information

The Roanoke Times suggests that Virginia lawmakers simplify the debate over release of electronic records by drastically reducing the occasions on which government units collect the sensitive personal information. “If government only rarely collects Social Security numbers, there is less pressure for altering the FOIA law,” the editorial said. (11/12/07)

Hold All Candidates Accountable on Open Government

The Biloxi (Miss) Sun Herald celebrated a question at a Jackson Clarion-Ledger editorial board meeting which prompted a candidate for lieutenant governor to suggest the state senate appropriations committee chair should not be reappointed unless he is willing to open the legislative process to the public. Every legislative candidate should be held accountable for openness in government, the Sun said. Not a bad idea – and why stop with candidates for the legislature. (10/22/07)


Explaining a Records Lawsuit: The University Is Not a Boys Club

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette explained why it sued the University of Arkansas for information on who was paying the football coaches brother how much. The University, the paper said, “is still a state agency. It is not a private school. It is not a boys club. It is not above the state laws and regulations.” (10/17/07)

Overturn Executive Order on Presidential Records, Seattle Times Urges

The Seattle Times urged the U.S. Senate to smoke out the anonymous senator who is holding up a bill that would override an executive order and make presidential records automatically public. The executive order gives former presidents a veto power on public release of the records. Said the Times: “Presidential records belong to the people in whose name the chief executive acts. His power is on loan from the governed.” (9/26/07)

Pinning Down the Candidates on Open Government Issues

When the Jackson Clarion Ledger’s editorial board asked a candidate for lieutenant governor about open government, he said he would not reappoint an appropriations chairman unless he opened the process to the public. The paper’s editorial let readers know it is making access to government information, and the accountability that results, an issue in its search for the most qualified candidates. (10/17/07)

Taking Police to Task for Withholding Routine Data from the Public

The Arizona Republic chastised several local police departments for refusing to make routine information public when the cases were sensitive, one involving the murder of a Phoenix police officer. The editorial noted that deputy county attorneys for Maricopa County are actively instructing county employees on how to avoid responding to public-records requests and suggesting inflated copying costs to discourage requesters. (10/17/07)

Education Department Failed to Pass This FOI Aptitude Test

Even worse than brain lock, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said, in criticizing the New York Education Department for refusing to make public the SAT scores of state students. The department argued that it was merely a passive recipient of the data from the College Board, and thus the information in not a public record. (9/25/07)

Meeting Closure a Display of Undemocratic Instincts

The Virginian-Pilot accused the Norfolk City Council of displaying its undemocratic instincts again and urged fellow citizens to remind the officials that city hall isn’t an exclusive club with secret signs. The commentary was prompted by a closed meeting to discuss a report on a now defunct nonprofit development corporation that cost taxpayers $245,000. (9/25/07)

Create Open Government Advocate, Des Moines Register Urges

The Des Moines Register urged the Iowa legislature to create an official advocate for the state’s public records and open meetings laws. The paper argued that enforcement of the existing open government laws is inadequate, with the attorney general and the county attorneys rarely bringing legal actions to enforce the laws. (9/6/07)

A Fishing Expedition Authorized by Law

The suit by Judicial Watch to force the Clinton Presidential Library to release papers from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s days as first lady may well be a fishing expedition, The Los Angeles Times comments, but “the group is fishing with a license – the Freedom of Information Act." The paper urges candidate Clinton to encourage the library to quickly make the information available to show she has nothing to hide. (8/29/07)


Hatfill Ruling Underscores the Need for Federal Shield Law

The ruling of a federal judge in Washington that requires five journalists to disclose their law enforcement sources in the Steven Hatfill suit against the government underscores the need for a federal shield law, the Los Angeles Times comments. “Without a robust federal shield law, other aggrieved parties will be tempted to follow Hatfill's path,” the paper says. (9/12/07)


Speaking of State Secrets, Remember El Paso!

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle notes that the Bush Administration’s approach to state secrets just gets curiouser, the latest bewilderment being the comments of National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell to an El Paso reporter on the government’s electronic surveillance of citizens, a program the administration has declared a state secret in seeking to block court review. (8/27/07)

State Secrets Hearing a Bizarro World Tableau

The San Francisco hearing pitting the government’s claim of “state secrets” against the public’s right to know more about the warrantless surveillance operations of the nation’s spy agencies is a “Bizarro World tableau … far more menancing than it is entertaining,” the Toledo Blade comments. “Federal officials, the courts, and the American people would do well to remember that guarding secrets for the sake of secrecy overwhelms the precious liberty which the nation has fought to protect for more than 200 years.”

Why Should Requester Pay Twice for Public Records?

The Charlotte Observer urged the North Carolina Legislature to enact a law permitting residents who must sue to obtain public records to recover legal costs from the government agency involved. Currently, the paper said in its editorial, agencies have little incentive to comply with the state’s public records law. And requesters who sue must pay twice for access to public information. (8/29/07)

Deleting the First Drafts of History

History gets erased. That, the Kennebec (Me) Journal writes is the simplest explanation of what happens when a public employee hits the delete button and erases an official e-mail dealing with government business. “Devising a system that can handle storage of state e-mails is essential,” the paper commented. “Defining broadly what e-mails should be retained is equally crucial. Without the evidence, the first draft of history can't even be written.” (8/20/07)

Hush-Hush, Sweet Liberty

"Government secrecy is unfortunately sometimes necessary, but it is so fundamentally at odds with the precepts of an open democracy that when it's employed, it has a way of getting out of hand," the Los Angeles Times writes in wake of the appellate court ruling tossing out a challenge to the government’s warrantless surveillance program. Here one secrets policy is being used to protect another, with the result that our liberties are silenced.


It's Going to Cost You More Than It's Going to Cost Us

The Jackson Clarion Ledger gave its readers a solid reason for paying attention to reports on the newspaper’s fight with the University of Mississippi Medical Center for information on doctor shortages. “No matter how much it costs the newspaper,” it said in an editorial, “it can cost taxpayers a lot more.” The hospital is seeking public funds to train more doctors without being forthcoming about the costs, the paper noted. (7/30/07)

L.A. Times: The Divine Rights of Vice Presidents

Vice President Cheney’s refusal to provide information on his office’s handling of classified information to an oversight office is both ludicrous and scary, the Los Angeles Times writes. His argument he need not comply with the information request is specious, but entirely in keeping with his long-standing views on executive power and privilege and “the divine rights of vice presidents.” (6/25/07)

Houston Chronicle Spotlights a Champion of Darkness

The Houston Chronicle put its editorial spotlight on one of the state’s champions of darkness, a state senator who has consistently championed secrecy legislation. State Sen. Tommy Williams, the paper said, “has repeadedly gone out of his way to reduce public knowledge of its own government, decreasing the chance that official corruption will come to light.” (5/10/07)

Googling Good for State Records but There Are Privacy Concerns

The expansion of public access to government records that will become possible as a result of Google’s work with four states got a qualified endorsement from the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, AZ. It’s a huge leap forward in accountability, the paper’s editorial said, but officials must be careful that individual privacy information is not inadvertently released and that Google should not be allowed to develop tracking information on users in an effort to target advertising. (5/7/07)


Two Views on Penalties for Open Records Violations

The North Carolina legislature is considering a bill to make it a misdemeanor to illegally withhold a public record. The Raleigh News & Observer commented that without effective enforcement, even good laws are ineffective. The Wilmington Morning Star noted the support so far has been from Republican lawmakers and said that Democrats who wish to distinguish themselves from “crooked or sleazy members of their party” should start by voting to make the public records law work better.


Florida's Open Government Office: More Than Just Following the Law

Having an Office of Open Government means more than just following the state law, the Florida Times Union comments in praising the initial work of the governor’s new office. It points to early pro-active steps to make it easier for people to get records and a companion effort subsequently launched by Florida’s attorney general. (4/12/07)

Police Report Modified; Judge Tried for Lesser Offense

“We have news for you,” the Columbus, Ga., Ledger-Enquirer told its readers in commenting on how a case in which a local judge arrested for a pistol at two motorists came to be adjudicated as a reckless driving offense. The editorial said details of the initial charge were hidden in a sealed supplemental report. “Your local police department, on advice of your local city attorney’s office, is systematically violating the spirit of the state Open Records Law. “ (4/9/07)

Rewriting History with an Inclomplete Set of Records

Public-records chicanery is standard political practice, the Seattle Post Intelligencer notes, writing of recent evidence that the Bush Administration has been using unofficial e-mail addresses to circumvent their becoming official records. The editorial calls this and a presidential order designed to limit future access to presidential records a effort to rewrite history via incomplete records. (4/9/07)

How Can the Consumer Be Protected If They Don't Know?

Iowa’s Insurance Division negotiated a $750,000 penalty against Conseco Life Insurance Co., billing it as a “consumer protection” victory. But the state isn’t saying why the company was fined. That doesn’t provide consumers much protection, the Des Moines Register wrote, since they don’t know what to look out for, or whether the state agency really acted in their best interest. (4/6/007)

Records Ruling on Coaches Contracts "Heartening"

The Anniston Star commented on its dispute with Jacksonville State University over access to coaches contracts, and what it called a “heartening” reaffirmation that compensation records are subject to open records laws. The paper said an Attorney General’s ruling that the university must make its records available spreads a little sunshine where cynicism and mistrust might otherwise take root. (4/5/07)

Wall Street Journal Says Prosecutor Fitzgerald's Affidavits Should Be Released

Dow Jones and the Associated Press have asked the federal Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C. to release affidavits that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald filed in the Scooter Libby case in order to justify compelling two reporters to testify. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that Fitzgerald actions seemed to violate longstanding Justice Department guidelines against subpoenaing reporters and that learning what he claimed in the affidavits was in the public interest. (4/4/07)

Mayoral Candidates Compared on Wonkish Ethics Issues

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that “wonkish stump speeches on ethics don't fire up many voters,” but that when the issue is defined more broadly as reflecting on a candidate's integrity and honesty, “it can be considered a critical piece of the campaign.” It then compared the stance of each of the five on three key ethics, open government issues that have come up in the campaign. (4/2/07)

A Classic Case of the Public's Right to Know Gone Awry

The Olympian reflects on the six-years-and-still-counting effort of the Spokane Review to obtain records from that city’s school board following the death of a 9-year-old student on a field trip. The school system responded to a records requests back in 2001 with a law suit against the paper. It’s a classic case of the public’s right to know, the Olympian said, but a Washington state appellate court recently ruled otherwise. (3/30/07)

Roanoke Reviews the Lessons from Gun Permits Posting

The Roanoke Times said that had learned a lesson in the controversy that erupted after it wrote a column about and then posted online the names and addresses of persons licensed to carry concealed weapons. The paper withdrew the list the next day after public criticism. In a subsequent editorial, the paper said it “gave insufficient thought and discussion to the potential that crime victims, law enforcement officers and domestic violence victims might be put at risk if their addresses were published” and that there needed to be a “more compelling public purpose” to justify posting the database of permit holders. (3/26/07)

Education Board's Records Refusal: All About Smokes

Sometimes a cigar is more than a cigar - it's a scandal, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in urging stronger open records laws in Pennsylvania. The cigar in question cost $150 and was one of the $860,000 in expense items one state board tried to keep secret. A court finally forced the agency to disclose its records. ((3/21/07)

State Stonewalling Demonstrates the Need for New Records Law

The Pennsylvania state Treasury Department is stonewalling the Harrisburg Patriot-News in its efforts to look at records on bonuses paid to staffers of state representatives. The department says the law is “entirely ambiguous.” The paper commented that if so, it only increases the arguments for a new state records law. (3/22/07)

Help Us Write Our Editorial on The Feds FOIA Performance

The Salem Statesman Journal posted this editorial on its website, three days ahead of its planned Sunshine Week publication, inviting readers to contribute. The editorial cites the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government study on federal agencies slow response to FOIA requests, calling it a “sad commentary on democracy that the feds’ performance seems to be heading in the wrong direction.” (3/9/07).

Indiana Should Block the Practice of Serial Meetings

The Marion, IN, Chronicle Tribune urged state lawmakers to close a nail shut a loophole in the state’s open meetings law by prohibiting serial meetings. That’s the loophole best known for allowing University of Indiana trustees used in voting to can then basketball coach Bobby Knight back in 2000. The bill has passed the Senate and is being considered by the House. (3/22/07)

The Inherent Insecurity in "Black" Budgets

“Black” budgeting in Washington may enhance security but it also opens the door to serious corruption, the Tomah, WI, Journal comments. “Over $40 billion a year in federal spending is hidden from public view, and that money is an open invitation to scoundrels,” the paper wrote. “The corruption scandals are a sobering reminder that secret federal budgets carry profound risks of their own.” (3/5/07)

Shield Law Needed to Restore Free Flow of Information

Declaring that federal prosecutors have “chilled the free flow of information” with their subpoenas of reporters and threats of jail if they don’t reveal sources, the New Haven Register called for adoption of a federal reporters-source shield law. “The law is needed to prevent government from suppressing information that should be public in a healthy democracy with a well-informed citizenry,” the editorial said. (3/1/07).

White House Finds Leaks "Unacceptable", Unless...

The White House has used terms like “unacceptable”, “shameful”, and “a disgrace” in its denunciations of leaks, USA Today notes, but that hasn’t caused a change in behavior. Iif there's one thing the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby shows, the paper wrote, it’s that “people at the highest levels of the administration leak when it suits their strategic purposes.” (2/20/07)

Proposal to Limit Criminal Court Record Access Called Ill-Considered

The Columbus Dispatch said a proposal before the American Bar Association to close some criminal court records is ill-considered and goes against the legal traditions of the United States. The proposal calls for new laws or court rules that would prohibit access to records in closed criminal cases that don’t result in convictions. (1/31/07)

Release of Troubling News Shows That FOIA Does Work

The release of the FBI files on the late Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, is both reassuring and troubling, the Terre Haute Tribune Star writes. Reassuring because the Freedom of Information Act provided a vehicle for making the information public. Disturbing because the files show the misuse of the FBI by presidents past. (1/29/07)

Administration is Going to "Surreptitious Extremes," Toledo Blade Says

The recent agreement between the White House and Secret Service to keep private the names of White House visitors is just the latest example of the “surreptitious extremes” of the Bush Administration the Toledo Blade editorialized.. It called the administration’s “obsession with secrecy” is a “lamentable” effort to “cordon itself off from scrutiny.” (1/22/07)

Des Moines Register Offers Lawmakers Specific Reform Proposals

The Des Moines Register, citing a series of open government abuses in the past year, suggested four specific reforms the incoming legislature could approve to keep Iowa’s government more accountable. It also urged the lawmakers to initiate an exhaustive review of the open meetings and records laws with even a more thorough review in mind. (1/22/07)

In Support of Lowering the Cost of Coppying Public Records

The Fort Collins Coloradoan gave its support to a bill that will lower the cost of records copying by both setting a lower per page cost and capping any hourly search fee. It noted that the state now has the highest rate in the country for copying public records. “A transparent government is an accountable government. SB 45 is a logical solution to assuring broader public access to government records,” the paper said. (1/25/07)

Texas Transparency: Will a Political Tactic Have a Positive Spin

After a fierce debate, the Texas House agreed to record the votes in the contest to select a new speaker. Good idea, commented the Austin American Statesman, and better yet if the legislature would record all committee and floor votes on every matter before it. The recorded vote for speaker was a pressure tactic, the editorial noted, but one that makes everyone a hypocrite if they don’t support openness on other votes as well. (1/16/07)

LA Times Stamps President's Signing Statement "Suspicious"

Many privacy advocates are befuddled by President George Bush’s postal bill signing statement, in which he asserted the right of the federal government to open mail without a warrant – an issue that wasn’t on the table. Was he ” trying to provide cover for another secret monitoring program? Was he laying the groundwork for a new one? It’s not hard to be suspicious, the LA Times editorial said, “given the administration's record on the issue of domestic surveillance.” (1/10/07)

USA Today: Mug Shots Don't Do Justice to Congress

It’s time for Congress to allow C-SPAN to more actively broadcast their sessions, USA Today argues. The cable network has provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House since 1979 and the Senate since 1986 but that coverage is limited to head shots of whoever is speaking. (1/3/06)

Records Law Should be Liberally Interpreted, Not Liberally Restricted

Fosters noted that a New Hampshire Supreme Court decision on police investigative records makes clears that the state’s Right-to-Know law “must be liberally interpreted, not liberally restricted — something that should be noted by county attorneys as well as local police departments.” (12/28/06)

Defining Open Government in Terms of Secrecy

The problem with Pennsylvania law is that it defines public records in terms of secrecy, not transparency, the Citizens Voice in Wilkes-Barre writes. The law, the paper editorialized, is “woeful,” as are a number of other regulations on accountability. It urged a series of reforms to make the government more accountable and transparent. (12/28/06)

Summing Up a Governor's Record on Open Government

The Albany Times-Union, summing up the administration of Gov. George Pataki, devoted a full editorial to his mixed record on open government. The administration was often referred to as Fort Pataki for the governor’s barriers to journalists, but he signed stronger records laws on three occasions. (12/22/06)

Government's Subpoena Use a Lot Worse Than Leak It Might Uncover

The Chicago Tribune calls the government’s use of grand jury subpoenas to force the ACLU to give up sensitive documents it received in the mail a dangerous attack on leaks. It proves, the paper wrote, “that there are some things a lot worse than leaks.” Subpoenas are a legal tool to gather information, not censor it, the paper said. (12/18/06)


Confidential Sources Key to Many Reports on Government Wrongdoing

The Concord, N.H., Monitor said in an editorial supporting a federal, reporter’s shield law that many of the important revelations about government wrongdoing, from Watergate to the discovery that federal authorities were secretly wiretapping citizens, came to light because someone was willing to disclose information to a journalist in confidence. “The public will never know about the stories that journalists didn't chase or the sources who didn't come forward because of the assault on the use of confidential sources.” (12/8/06)


Good Cops Don't Need a Special Shield, Free Press Argues

Good cops don't need a special shield, and bad cops don't deserve one, the Detroit Free Press writes in an editorial arguing against proposed Michigan legislation that would seal statements police officers are required to make in investigations or face loss of job. The public is not served by secrecy, the paper says, nor are the vast majority of police officers. (11/29/06)


Trust Requires Candor, Not Hiding Mistakes

“Government agencies love secrecy because it can help them hide their mistakes,” the Philadelphia Inquirer writes, quickly adding that the consequences of the city’s mistakes in the deaths of some 25 children who have died of abuse “make it essential for City Hall to release records dealing with child-abuse and -neglect fatalities. The Department of Human Services, the editorial says, can DHS can best protect children by identifying failures and making corrections in full public view. (11/29/06)

Clarion Ledger Defines University "Transparency" as "Openly Secret"

The Jackson Clarion Ledger, brushing aside the Mississippi university system’s euphemisms, said the so-called “transparency” in selecting two new university presidents still amounted to blatant secrecy. “That's not the way public universities funded by the public should be run, or the public treated,” the paper said. (11/13/06)

Open Government Support a Criteria for Campaign Endorsement

Because their state has one of the nation’s weakest open government laws, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association asked all candidates for the state legislature to support three broad principles of transparency. The Harrisburg Patriot News explained those in an editorial to readers and noted that all of the candidates it had endorsed had pledged support. (11/6/07)


Why Was Intelligence Estimate Classified, Austin American Statesman Asks

The President pique at having to surrender portions of the classified National Intelligence Estimate assessing the war on terror will undoubtedly be interpreted in predictable — and wrong — ways, The Austin American Statesman comments. But the paper wonders why the document was initially classified. “The president damages any case for classifying material with a knee-jerk secrecy that demonstrates only contempt for free, open and, above all, informed debate.” (9/29/06)

Why We Need a Federal Reporters Shield Law

Bills to establish a federal shield law have been filed in both the House and the Senate but remain in committee, even as prosecutors subpoena reporters in an effort to force them to reveal their sources. Here’s a recent collection of editorials on the subject. (9/6/06)

Debunking the Argument for Private Leadership Searches

Rare is the educational institution that does not want to keep its search for a new leader confidential. The Galveston Daily News argued a local school board’s contention that they couldn’t attract a qualified superintendent through a public search only sounds reasonable. (11/2/06)

Sen. Bond's Official Secrets Act "Gilds the Legal Lilly"

The Missoulian calls new legislation by Sen. Christopher Bond, R-MO, an effort “to gild the legal lilly,” and a bad idea with considerable potential for evil. The bill, which would criminalize the unauthorized sharing of any classified information, not just that which would be harmful to national security. The paper said the bill amounts to an official secrets act which “will do more to stifle democracy than protect security.” (8/21/06)

Texas Governor Argues Tollway Pact Not Public

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the Department of Transportation are arguing in a public records lawsuit brought by the attorney general that information on a contract with a Spanish firm for the biggest highway project in the state’s history is proprietary and should be kept from the public. The Waco Tribune suggests in an editorial that the governor not “waste another penny of our tax dollars defending secrecy that, if not outright illegal, runs directly counter to the essential principle of open government.” (9/18/06)

The Rock-Bottom Worst FOI Laws? Try Pennsylvania

The Lebanon,PA, Daily News doesn’t think much of its state’s open government laws. “The rock-bottom worst laws governing public access to information one can find anywhere,” it said in an editorial. It cited efforts now underway to persuade the governor and legislators that a new Sunshine Law is needed. “We have yet to see the dawn.” (9/15/06)


A Town That's Setting the Wrong Kind of Example

Chester, NH, is setting an example in how not to govern, the Union Leader observes, pointing to a pattern of closed-door sessions that present a clear violation of the state open meetings law. In the latest, minutes of a meeting unsealed by the court showed the discussion in a meeting closed to take up a personnel matter ranged far afield. (9/5/06)

California's Prisons Need Some Exposure

California’s prison system is generally not working. They’re overcrowded and understaffed – information that has been kept from the public until now. The Legislature has approved a new law that will allow media access to prisons by a vote of 71-1 in the General Assembly and 27-8 in the Senate. The governor vetoed similar legislation last year but the Modesto Bee argued he should sign thing one. Otherwise, “what is the governor trying to hide?”

When FEMA Stonewalls Congress, Something is Wrong

The question probably requires more of a political response than a factual one, but either way neither Rep. Charles Boustany’s congressional privileges nor the Freedom of Information Act seem to be carrying much weight with FEMA. He wants to know why FEMA is treating areas damaged by Hurricane Rita last year differently than adjoining areas hit by Kartrina. Said the Baton Rouge Advocate in an understated editorial following a conversion with Boustany, “FEMA, however, is apparently particular about which people it serves. … Something is wrong.” (8/14/06)

A Tale of a Secret Development Deal Gone Awry

The Athens Banner pointed Georgia legislators to an unfolding scandal in its neighbor to the north in arguing against proposed legislation that would keep economic development dealings from the public. The town of Holly Springs, NC, won a new Novartis AG plant with a $20.8 million incentive package worked out in closed meetings, the editorial noted. Just one problem. The town is $9 million short of being able to meet its commitment. (8/16/06)

CIA Should Stick to Intelligence, Not Decide What's News

“The CIA should stick to the business of gathering intelligence rather than trying to tell researchers what is newsworthy and what isn't,” the Houston Chronicle writes in commenting on recent decisions by the agency to deny “media” status to the National Security Archive and thus charge it a prohibitive fee for its search of records in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. The agency says the information sought isn’t news. “If government bureaucracies make judgments about news, the inevitable product won't be news, but propaganda,” the paper wrote. (6/23/06)

Clarion Ledger on Records Fight: It Should Never Have Been a Problem

With Jackson, Miss., Mayor Frank Melton’s agreement to follow the public records law and release public documents to the Clarion Ledger, the newspaper commented that this “should never have been a problem. … the Public Records Act wasn't written just for newspapers, but the public. Any citizen is entitled to inspect public records and when public officials refuse to obey the law, it is an offense against the public, not only the media.” (6/23/06)

Oklahoma Paper Finds Itself Partly at Fault in Open Meetings Violation

When the Bartlesville, OK, Examiner-Enterprise received an audio recording of an unannounced meeting of the county’s Public Safety Advisory Committee, it responded with a front page story and an editorial spelling out why the meeting was a violation of the state’s open meetings law. And while faulting public officials for not knowing or not following the law, it also faulted itself for not being a loud-enough watchdog. “The newspaper may have actually helped to create an environment where closed-door government is tolerated by not having taken officials to task before now,” it said. (8/10/06)

South Carolina Slowly Opening Professional Disciplinary Actions

South Carolina has slowly been rolling back the confidentiality surrounding professional disciplinary hearings and, guess what, the systems have survived. The Columbia State comments notes the success in applauding still another small breakthrough – opening discliplinary actions against veterinarians. (8/10/06)

A Shield Is Needed for Media Sources

The day may come when Congress or the states will provide greater legal protection for bloggers and "nonprofessional" journalists. But for now, the Los Angeles Times comments, the priority must be to make federal law at least as protective of traditional journalists' confidential sources as the laws of most of the states. (6/06/06)

The Issue Is Not Press Freedom, It's Democracy

The issue isn’t press freedom, it’s democracy, the Missoulian argues in an editorial urging its readers to support the “moderate” Free Flow of Information Act, or reporter’s shield law now before Congress. The editorial said that they as readers are the ultimate beneficiary, not the journalist. “The purpose of a federal shield law for reporters is to allow you - rather than the government - to decide what you need to know.” (6/5/06)

An Idea That Would Institutionalize Secrecy

The idea that some in Congress are kicking around to make it a crime for journalists to receive classified information is not just a bad idea, it’s a dangerous one, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle wrote. It’s “the most serious attack on press freedom seen in the Capitol since the days of Richard Nixon,” the paper said and would “institutionalize secrecy” if implemented. (6/5/06)

Gonzales Comments Draw Sharp Editorial Responses

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' comments on national television indicating that journalists could be prosecuted for reporting classified information leaked to them prompted sharp editorial responses from The New York Times and the Washington Post, which have each run stories based on leaked information that are not being investigated by the Justice Department. The Times said it found the attorney general’s veiled threat “bizarre” and the Post called it an effort to “convert a moribund World War I-era espionage law into an American version of Britain's Official Secrets Act.” 5/24/06


Columns

Meat Recalls Are Classified Information

Most states won't publicly identify stores receiving recalled meat, but the USDA is waiting on White House approval to do just that. Stores do not have to reveal whether they have meat subject to a recall, and those in government who know don't tell in most states. But a proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture would allow USDA to publicly disclose all stores where bad meat was sold. The proposed rule has cleared the USDA and is sitting at the Office of Management and Budget, according to a USDA official. (2/27/08)

Secrecy News Calls for Transparent Presidency

Reviewing the Bush administration's secrecy around the CIA's interrogation techniques, rendition and warrantless surveillance, Secrecy News editor Steve Aftergood calls on the next President to "demonstrate a clean break with its predecessor, and lay the foundation for a more transparent and accountable Presidency." Columnist Nat Hentoff agrees. (2/25/08)


Student Loan Scandal in PA Reason Enough for Open Records Law

State representative Barbara McIlvaine Smith congratulated the Pennsylvania legislature for passing the state's first open records reforms in decades. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency racked up legal feels of $409,413 and must pay an additional $50,000 in legal fees in a losing battle over access to student loan records. This fight is “the poster child for why we need a strong open records law in Pennsylvania,” Smith wrote in a guest column. It is now up to the people of Pennsylvania to use the newly granted open-access wisely and responsibly. (2/20/08)

Washington State Debates Public Meetings Bill

Washington state legislators debate a bill that would make it easier to note abuses of the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. Under the current law, the News Tribune said, “residents who suspect a violation are required to prove the nearly unprovable – that something they didn’t see and can’t find out about was illegal.” Under this bill, officials could continue to meet privately, but all actions-- deliberations, discussions, and votes—must be public. If officials did meet in a closed session, to discuss personnel for example, an audio recording of the meeting must be made. (2/18/08)

Subpoenaing of 3 Reporters Makes the Case for New Shield Law

Seattle Times Editor Mike Fancher says the subpoenaing of three reporters by city attorney Tom Carr provided a strong argument for the recently enacted reporter-source shield law and a “teachable moment” for the public and journalists alike. Carr quickly withdrew the subpoenas in the face of strong public and political reaction. (12/10/07)

Open Government Becomes an Issue in Several Political Campaigns

Tacoma News Tribune Editor David Zeeck says he delighted to see open government becoming an issue in political campaigns, noting three examples from the previous week’s news including the governor’s races in Missouri and Washington, and a fight over leadership of an area tribal council.    (12/3/07)

When Law Enforcement Officers Choose to Ignore the Law

Scripps Florida Treasure Coast opinion editor Laurence Reisman recounts a series of reporting incidents where local lawmen decided not to honor the law and refused to release public information to journalists.   In two cases, a representative from the goverrnor’s Open Government Office had to intervene. No one, said Reisman, should have to go through such mental verbal gymnastics when seeking a public record. (12//3/07)

The List of Things We Can't KnowJust Keeps Growing

The Talking Points Memo blog has made some additions to its list of how much less we know because of Bush Administration policies.   It includes a former surgeon general’s testimony that he was prevented from speaking about stem cell research and NOAA’s failure to produce a climate change report due in 2004.  (11/27/07)

Four Month Delay and Heavy Redactions Put County's Credibility at Risk

It’s taken the Riverside Press Enterprise four months to get basic expense records of officials from San Bernardino County and the records finally provided were heavily redacted for “privacy” reasons.  The credit card receipts show officials’ penchant for the better restaurants one official’s carelessness with receipts. Writes columnist Cassie MacDuff,  “Blacking out the names of public officials makes the county look silly -- when its credibility is at stake.”     (11/27/07)

Oppose Presidential Records Order, Sen. Clinton Urged

A Baltimore Sun blogger urged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to actively support legislation to overturn a presidential order limiting public access to records of former presidents. President Bush’s 2001 order gives former presidents prior approval on the release of their records. Critics have accused the Clintons of blocking the release of records involving the former First Lady.   (11/19/07)

What's Needed Most Is a Change in Attitude

“If one could make a single change to strengthen the public's right to know, it would be this: a change in attitude,” writes attorney David Bodney, counsel for the Arizona Republic in an op ed column. Bodney sees a need for public officials to buy in to the concept of information as the people’s property. But he says the public needs to adjust as well, taking a responsibility to become and stay informed. (9/12/07)

Editor Explains Why Paper Sought Public Employees Birth Dates

When the Seattle Times requested the names, job title, hire date, salary and birth date of all county employees, the employees union protested and threatened a circulation boycott. Times Editor-at-Large Mike Fancher responded with a column detailing stories the paper has done over the years using the birth dates to double check identities: coaches getting new posts despite records of sexual misconduct, double dipping on the public payroll, ghost employees, and pension scamming. (8/27/07)

Mississippi Corrections Department Finds Many Reasons to Withhold

Jackson (Miss) Clarion Ledger reporter Chris Joyner writes of his misadventures in seeking records from the state’s Department of Corrections, which withheld data on the experience levels of guards in maximum security unit claiming it is private personnel information and surveillance photos of abuses, claiming these were part of ongoing investigations. The department also claimed release could “endanger the life or safety of employees” who work in the unit. (8/20/07)

Why Closing Infrastructure Records Represents Safety Threat

The Dallas Morning News Watchdog Jennifer LaFleur suggests that increased public inspection of records might have led a governmental response that would have prevented the collapse of the 35-W bridge in Minneapolis. The editorial noted that after the collapse, hundreds of news organizations looked at bridge inspection data in their areas and that there is a new demand for repairs and preventive maintenance. Does closing the information protect the public, the paper asked. It said the public could not always depend on agencies to do fix problems as they arise. (8/8/07)


Charlotte Editor Ed Williams: Yes, Records Law Can Be a Pain

Charlotte Observer Editorial Page Editor Ed Williams concedes for public officials complying with the public records law can be intrusive and annoying, and that it can be expensive for their agencies. “But that's a cost of making government responsible to the people,” he said in a column on a dispute between the newspaper and the city’s mayor over access to his e-mails. (7/30/07)

David Carr: More Sunlight Is Needed

New York Times media reporter David Carr looks at the pending OPEN Government Act and suggests it’s time Congress made some repairs to the Freedom of Information Act. “Almost everyone seems to realize that more sunlight is needed. A bill to bring the government into the same century as its citizens has picked up massive support across a broad spectrum, but has yet to reach the Senate floor for a vote because it is impaled on the obstinacy of a single senator.” (7/23/07)

Washington Post Ombudsman: Open the Government

The Washington Post’s Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, turned from her usual review of the newspaper’s coverage to the issue of access to information, calling for passage of the pending Open Government Act and also suggesting that Congress should put itself under a similar transparency mandate. (6/25/07)

As Congress Fiddles, Transparency Talks Hold in the States

Even as Congress fiddles with real earmark reform, there is a movement well outside the Beltway for genuine government transparency, writes Wall Street Journal editorial board member Kimberley Strassel. She cites actions in five states to post information on the web about state spending. (6/22/07)

The Case for a Qualified State Secrets Privilege

Michael German, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, and David Kay, who let the Iraq Survey Group, make their case for congressional action to limit executive branch use of the State Secrets privilege, saying that the line between legitimately sensitive information and that the government simply finds embarrassing has been blurred by recent government use of the privilege. (6/18/07)

A Debate Over Privace and the Public's Right to Know

The LA Times engaged lawyers Kelli L. Sager and Alison Berry Wilkinson in a weeklong a series of columns debating privacy and the public’s rights to know. This one looks at whether police conduct hearings should be opened to the public. (6/5/07)

A Preamble for the Open Government Movement

Seattle Times Editor at Large Michael Fancher tells the story of the state open government coalition movement in a column tied to the annual meeting of the National Freedom of Information Coalition in his town. He cited the preamble to Washington’s records law as befitting the spirit of the coalitions: "The people of this state … do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created." (5/14/07)

I’d like to tell you, but it’s a secret,

Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts explores the responses – and the secrecy – of the state’s Child Protective Services in several cases involving the death of children, saying she’d like to tell readers what happened: “The truth is, we have no idea whether CPS did its job or botched the whole operation. It's a secret.” (5/2/07)

3 Document Markings That Are Equally Bogus

What do “sensitive but unclassified,” "sensitive security information," and "sensitive homeland security information" have in common? Writer Joe Rothstein answers his own question by declaring each a “bogus” categorization with no basis in law. But he notes they’ve resulted in millions of documents being kept from the public. (4/18/07)

Prologue to a Dangerous Farce

The Mine Safety and Health Administration, currently writing new rules on civil penalties, held a closed-door meeting with industry officials after the deadline for public comments on the proposed changes. And it said a transcript of the discussion would not be made public. Mine Safety and Health News Editor Ellen Smith said she had trouble accepting the agency’s contention that nothing from the meeting would be considered or affect the final decision. 4/11/07)

Records Show Where School System Was a Shield for Misconduct

Seattle Times Editor-at-Large Mike Fancher tells the story of the paper’s five year fight for school district records on teachers and coaches accused of sexual misconduct. The paper’s series of stories identified 100 men who continued to coach or teach after being fired or reprimanded for sexual misconduct but it has had to battle the state teachers union in court all the way. Without openness, said Fancher, would not have known the many instances where the system not only didn't work but operated as a shield to protect coaches who prey. (4/2/07)

Are Reporters Too Quick to Grant Confidentiality?

Dante Chinni, a senior associate at the Project of Excellence in Journalism, argues in the Christian Science Monitor that reporters are too loose in granting confidentiality to sources: “Journalists increasingly grant confidentiality and anonymity the way many Americans run up credit card charges – too easily. As a result, the notion of anonymous sourcing has spread from reluctant whistle-blowers and highly sensitive sources to virtually anyone.” (3/7/07)

Public Must Join the Push for Open Government

Mesa Republic General Manager Paul Maryniak offered a former reporter’s perspective in a pre-Sunshine Week column on the importance of open records. He recounted a local official’s comment that public requests for information were a “distraction” and a months-long effort by the paper to get e-mails of an official who had just pled guilty to taking $600,000 in public funds. His message: the public should be as assertive as reporters in trying to get public records. (3/7/07)

BALCO Case Raises Some Old Questions Anew

Did the BALCO reporters use bad judgment in accepting access to grand jury documents from a shady lawyer and then compound that misjudgment by holding to their promise of confidentiality when the lawyer misused their stories to try to get charges against his clients dismissed? California First Amendment Coalition director Peter Scheer explores the issues in a column that raises other questions about the way reporters deal with sources. (3/5/07)


Private, Bipartisan Caucus Plan Is Goofy But Not Surprising

"I wish I could say I am stunned by this goofy plan, but nothing surprises me where government secrecy is concerned,” writes Christine Tatum a Denver Post columnist and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists. The plan she has in mind? The Senate’s closed-door “bipartisan caucus” to talk about ways the members of the two parties can work together. If anything, Tatum argues, members of Congress “need to be unmasked for their behind-the-scenes shenanigans,.” (1/3/06)

A Clear Message for Open Government in Florida

Florida’s incoming governor, Charlie Crist, has demonstrated a commitment to open government that is too rare in the political world, the St. Petersburg Times wrote, and particularly so in the case of his predecessor. The action, the paper said, sends a clear message about the importance of restoring confidence in open government. (12/15/06)

Geoffrey Stone: Wrong Turns Highlight Need for More Open Government

From the day it took office, writes Prof. Geoffrey R. Stone, the Bush administration has wrapped itself in unprecedented secrecy. “It intentionally hid critical information about its deliberations and decisions from Congress, the courts, the press, and the American people. … As we learn more each week about the wrong turns, mistakes, and misjudgments that led us to our current dilemma, we should reflect on the role of openness in a democratic society.” (12/11/06)

Open Congress? Start by Releasing CRS Analytical Reports

The power shift in Congress presents a unique opportunity to open up an important Congressional institution to the Internet, blogger Christian Beckner writes. He urges Congress allow the Congressional Research Service to post its reports, which are technically public but never released to the public. (11/15/06)

The Real Crime Is Government Secrecy

The leak of information on the arrest record of an illegal alien to a candidate in the Colorado gubernatorial campaign touched off what the Rocky Mountain News suggested was excessive bloviating. The paper, noting that law-enforcement data on illegal immigrants is more inaccessible than similar data for U.S. citizens, said the real crime is excessive government secrecy. (11/3/06)

The Leaker in Chief Turns His Game Up a Notch

The Secrecy Game, one of Washington's favorite spectator sports, has reached new heights of absurdity, David Wise writes in the LA Times. Americans were treated to the spectacle of an administration obsessed with secrecy turning around and declassifying parts of one of the most highly secret documents produced by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. (10/2/06)

An Official Secrets Act Might Keep Congress in the Dark, Too

Legislation aimed at criminalizing the disclosure of classified information is a threat not only to whistle blowers and the press but to Congress’s exercise of its own oversight function as well, writes Nick Schwellenbach on the Nieman Watchdog site.

A $744 Million Stonewall, and Government Shrugs

Four health care providers who collected $744 million from the state of Connecticut to administer Medicaid programs are refusing to provide the public information on the rates they pay, a question raised because of a shortage of specialists to provide care. Despite the companies refusal to provide the information despite gubernatorial order and FOI Commission advisory, the Hartford Courant notes, the Department of Social Services doubled the recommended rate increase to the companies. (8/7/06)

A Rising Tide of Secrecy and Surveillance

“The federal government is concealing more information about its own activities, while engaging in more surveillance of Americans' private lives,” CNET’s Declan McCullagh writes in an analysis of developments in the five years since 911. (9/7/06)

Judicial Deference to Security Claims "Decapitates" Justice

“When judges so automatically trust the government that they abdicate their very reason for being on the bench, justice has not only been denied -- it's been decapitated,” writes Nat Hentoff in a Washington Times column on the federal government’s use of the “state secrets privilege” to win dismissal of illegal surveillance lawsuits. Hentoff applauded Judge Vaughn Walker’s standing up to the government in a suit against AT&T for allegedly assisting in warrantless electronic surveillance efforts. (8/14/06)

Secrecy Permits Inattention to Civil Liberties

The Virginian Pilot rapped both the Navy’s inattention to civil liberties and its penchant for secrecy in an editorial criticizing its secret jailing of a seaman for four months on espionage charges with no public notice. It called the Navy’s explanation – that it was protecting the sailor’s privacy rights – a “creative” spin of its “indifference to fundamental liberties.” (8/9/06)

Securit-Civil Liberties: The Shifting Balance After 9-11

9/11 shifted the always delicate balance between national security and civil liberties, Ron Harris reports for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Some of the actions taken after the terrorist attacks “sound like the doings of a South American dictatorship or Orwellian fiction.” (8/7/06)

South Carolina Slowly Opening Professional Disciplinary Actions

South Carolina has slowly been rolling back the confidentiality surrounding professional disciplinary hearings and, guess what, the systems have survived. The Columbia State comments notes the success in applauding still another small breakthrough – opening discliplinary actions against veterinarians. (8/10/06)

The Futility of Chasing Leaks

The three year investigation into who leaked information about Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak is ample proof of the futility of leak investigations, argue veteran First Amendment lawyers Bruce Sanford and Bruce Bowen. A shield law and judicial action will help, they say, but what’s needed most is “some real prosecutorial soul-searching, independence and tough-mindedness about the need to investigate so-called leaks in the first place” (7/20/06).

Read the News, Go to Jail

The Administration and some members of Congress long for an Official Secrets Act like Britain’s, allowing the prosecution of reporters of reporters who print unfavorable stories containing classified information, writes David Wise, author of a book on FBI agent turned-spy Robert Hanssen. The Constitution remains a barrier, but they are slowly chipping away, in policy, proposed legislation, and the courts, he says in an Los Angeles Times column. Some other reports and commentary are linked below. (5/3/06)


Sorry, You’ll Have to Talk to Our Spin-Doctor

Tuscon Weekly’s Tim Vanderpool looks at governmental gatekeeping and the increasing efforts of agencies to filter all information through a spin-oriented spokesperson. Open government loses in the process, he says. (8/3/06)

State Secrets Privilege Attacks Bedrock Moral, Legal Principles

Since 2001, the administration has wielded the "state secrets" privilege as a wide-ranging weapon to snuff out legal challenges to its most Draconian tactics in the global war on terror,” Mark Follman writes in Salon . “At stake are no less than bedrock American moral and legal principles.” The privilege, established in a 1953 Supreme Court Ruling, has been used in a number of cases recently to obtain a dismissal with no hearing of what the government contends are “classified” facts. (6/23/06)

Why the Media Must Lead the Fight for Open Government

Jackson Clarion Ledger Executive Editor Ronnie Agnew recounts the community reaction and his own reasoning for his newspapers’ public records suit against the Mississippi town’s mayor, and why the real plaintiff and winner in the case was the public. “If a newspaper with the financial wherewithal to take the matter to court can't get the records, imagine the frustration the general public would feel … That's why newspapers and other media must be willing to take on such fights.” (6/6/06)

An Idea That Would Institutionalize Secrecy

The idea that some in Congress are kicking around to make it a crime for journalists to receive classified information is not just a bad idea, it’s a dangerous one, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle wrote. It’s “the most serious attack on press freedom seen in the Capitol since the days of Richard Nixon,” the paper said and would “institutionalize secrecy” if implemented. (6/5/06)

Patriot Act Opens Door for FBI's Gathering Reporter Phone Records

The FBI’s secret gathering of reporters’ phone records has its legal basis in the Patriot Act, adopted hastily by Congress after 9/11. It allows expanded use of “National Security Letters” which allow the agency to pull phone and other records while gagging the communications companies that release the records, writes Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Foundation. “These provisions,” he notes, “are custom-made for leak investigations of news stories on national security and intelligence matters.” (5/25/06)

A Few Vetoes Will Keep Florida's Sunshine Law Bright

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has a great opportunity to uphold the state’s reputation as having among the best open-government laws in the country, the Daytona Beach News-Journal argues. It only takes a few strokes of his pen on vetoing the exemptions that cleared the Legislature this session. (5/19/06)


True confession. FOI Isn’t a Very Sexy Topic

Acknowledging that, the Elmira Star Gazette’s David W. Kubissa took on the thankless task in a broad review of pending open government legislation before the New York Assembly., putting particular emphasis on a bill that would make suing the state less risky and “tilt the playing field” a little more in the direction of the inquiring citizen. (4/14/06)

A New Front in the Battle to Control Information

The administration has opened another front in its battle to control information, First Amendment Center ombudsman Paul McMasters writes. They’re aiming at the media “but the inevitable result will be to homogenize political discourse and sanitize this nation's memory of its past,” he says, citing the fight over the Jack Anderson papers as just the latest threat. (4/21/06).

One Missing Detail in the Death of a Teenager

Just the facts: A teenager is killed when struck by a car. Police withhold some details of the incident. The local newspaper files a complaint with the Freedom of Information Council. The police chief relents but criticizes the paper for its impatience. Connecticut Post editor James Smith, in a straightforward, understated column, explains the “detail” withheld: the name of the driver who struck and killed the girl. The police were ignoring standard operating procedures, the freedom of information laws, and a court ruling, Smith wrote. (4/13/06)

Secrecy Permeates the Discourse, But You Don't Need to Know

“Secrecy and supposition permeate the discourse,” writes Nicholas von Hoffman in the New York Observer in the wake of disclosure of National Security Agency domestic eavesdropping, and the officials standing at lecterns are rarely forthcoming: “Whom are we fighting? That’s a secret. What are the names of our enemies? That’s a secret, too. Why are we fighting? Classified. When will the war be over? We can’t tell you. What’s happening? You don’t need to know …” (3/8/06)

Wisconsin Attorney General Hurting Open Government Reputation

Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager is in a protracte