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National Security Archive: Oldest FOIA Request Is 20 Years and Counting
It’s been 40 years since the Freedom of Information Act went into operation, requiring federal departments and agencies to release non-exempt records of their operations to the public. A new study by the National Security Archives shows at least one requester has been waiting half that time to get documents. The study spotlights the oldest outstanding requests – at least in those agencies that responded to the organization/s FOIA request. 26 agencies still hadn’t after six months. (7/2/07)
Tracing the "Unprecedented" Rise in Government Secrecy
A new report by OpenTheGovernment and People for the American Way Foundation cites an “unprecedented rise in government secrecy over the last six years.” Decisions Without Democracy is an update of a 1987 primer on the expansion of executive power. "Increased secrecy is just one of the ways that the Bush Administration has made the government less accountable," said People For the American Way Foundation President Ralph G. Neas. (7/23/07)
Reporters Committee's Open Government Guide
A review of the open records and meetings laws in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia prepared by attorneys with media-law experience in those states.
A Report on FOIA from ASNE Counsel Kevin Goldberg
For the first time in recent years, the focus in 2005 was on forward-looking legislation that would make FOIA better, faster and stronger instead of seeking to withdraw records from public access. Rather than seeking to punish journalists, Congress was actually considering granting them a privilege that would allow them to do their jobs unfettered by courts and prosecutors, special or otherwise.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in a comprehensive report on government secrecy, finds that in the three years since September 11, the federal government has taken an astonishing amount of information away from the American people.
Some Congressional Research Service Reports Are Now Online
Reports of the Congressional Research Service, provided at $100 million in annual taxpayer expense to brief members of Congress on current issues but not released to the public, are now available online from several independent sources, most notably OpenCRS, a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology. The reports are now released to the public and have historically be available only through requests to members of Congress. OpenCRS and The University of North Texas Libraries, working with a grant from the American Library Association, have now begun posting or linking to those that have been privately collected. The North Texas collection, for instance, includes some 6,500 reports dating back to 1990. The Center for Democracy and Technology, working with five public advocacy groups, has put 3,300 reports, and thousands of updates of those reports, on line. (6/28/05)
A Report on Court Access from Harry Hammitt
2005 marked something of a turning point in access litigation. After several years of minor victories followed by major defeats, momentum during 2005 clearly seemed to favor the requester rather than the government. Several district courts began to reject what they considered rampant speculation on the part of the government in protecting information concerning U.S. treatment of detainees, both in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Arguments about how information might be used to aid and abet terrorists that were accepted almost reflexively several years ago were greeted with skepticism, even disdain, in a number of cases.
From the NPR Archives, A Report on the Information "Deep Freeze"
When its objectivity was challenged over reports on government secrecy, NPR’s On the Media searched its archives for interview segments dealing with the flow of information in the Bush Administration – and acknowledged that these have become increasingly critical. Then it offered a sampling of the interview segments it found -- as an indication of what may lie ahead.
A Matter of Degree: Journalists as Activists on FOI, Other Issues
The Aspen Institute and Ford Foundation hosted two dozen journalists, academics and other leaders in the field to discuss journalist involvement in policy issues. The report on the 2004 forum, authored by Neil Shister, explores the justifications for and restrictions on journalist involvement in policy issues, including freedom of information questions.
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
The National Security Archive conducted an audit of Freedom of Information Act performance by federal agencies and uncovered the ten oldest pending FOIA requests
Clamping Down on Press Freedom -- Watergate to Present
The Center for Public Integrity’s Charles Lewis traces government secrecy efforts – “the tension between power and the press, between spinning and searching for truth, between disinformation and information” – from the Pentagon Papers to the Patriot Act. He reminds us that the solicitor general who pressed the administration’s case to suppress publication of the papers later acknowledged that he had never seen “any trace of a threat to the national security” from the publication.
Freedom and Secrecy Conference report
In the fall of 2003, the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University brought together journalists, academics and public officials to examine the growing conflict between our liberties and national security. A report and the conference transcript are both available.
The Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act provides an overview of the FOIA's exemptions, the exclusions for law enforcement records, and of key procedural elements. It was last updated in May, 2004.
Wired's Guide to Government Information Sites
Noting that government is providing less and less information, often in the name of security, Wired Magazine offers a browsers’ guide to finding what you are looking for using a growing number of websites and data crunchers. It includes Google’s little known, government specific search engine. An Inter Press Service article on open government websites reviews a number of the same sites.
The Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists publishes this e-mail newsletter several times each week, providing timely coverage new developments in secrecy, security and intelligence policies, of with links to resource information on each of the issues
This is a bi-weekly tip-sheet with news and story ideas from the First Amendment Task Force of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
OMB Watch is a non-profit research and advocacy organization that monitors the federal government performance and is increasingly involved in open government issues. It recently compiled a report on the 10 most wanted federal documents.
This the newsletter of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and is produced by University of Missouri FOI Center.
An online discussion group on access to public records, open meetings and trends in state legislation, maintained by Syracuse University for the NFOIC.
Sunshine Sunday – Making the Case for Open Access
Andy Alexander, Cox Newspapers bureau chief in Washington and chair of the FOI committee for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, provides an overview of the ASNE-initiated Sunshine Sunday project for Editor magazine and talks about transparency, and the lack of it, in the nation’s capital. Also, ASNE President Karla Garrett Harshaw asks, “Are We Always Journalists” or must we sometimes get involved in issues that affect our reporting.
FOI After 30 Years: Time for More Sunshine
Robert J. Freeman, longtime executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, reflects on the history of freedom of information in the U.S. and how the world is catching up and passing us.
These are tough times for open government in our nation's capital, writes CJOG coordinator Pete Weitzel in an article for the ASNE Editor that surveys the executive orders, homeland security regulations and laws that are increasingly being used to restrict the flow of government information.
The Steady March of Government Secrecy
An article in the Fall 2004 issue of Nieman Reports on growing government secrecy and what the media is doing in response, by CJOG coordinator Pete Weitzel.
American Journalism Review Managing Editor Lori Robertson explores the Bush Administration’s tightening control over information – a highly disciplined effort to keep everyone on message.
In a companion AJR piece, Rachel Smolkin writes about the barrage of subpoenas seeking to force journalists to testify and the court decisions ordering them to comply ordering them to comply. She explores the efforts to fight back.
Sen. John Cornyn on FOIA Reform
It has been almost 25 years since the Senate Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing on the Freedom of Information Act, half that since the committee examined FOIA compliance, Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, writes in the LBJ Journal of Public Affairs. Sen. Cornyn, a committee member, changed that by chairing a hearing on his own bill to repair FOIA in March. The goal, he writes, is approval of legislation to “close loopholes in the law, help requestors obtain timely responses to their requests, ensure that agencies have strong incentives to act on requests in a timely fashion, and provide FOIA officials with the tools they need to ensure that our government remains open and accessible.”
