Update 10/10/05

Cameras in the Supreme Court: The Reporters Committee has drafted a letter to new Chief Justice John Roberts asking him to consider a series of open court reforms, including cameras and immediate availability of transcripts and audio tapes. If your organization would like to join in the letter, please let me know as early as possible Tuesday. RCFP plans to sent out the letter late Tuesday.

A copy is attached.

Last week, The Radio-Television News Directors sent a letter requesting the chief justice to consider allowing television cameras.

Toxic emissions: The Society of Environmental Journalists is preparing comments in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to reduce the flow of information on toxic emissions from chemical and other plants. The EPA says it will no longer require companies to report annually on potentially hazardous emissions and it will issue its own report only once every two years. A draft of SEJ’s protest should be available later this week. I’ll circulate it then. Co-signers encouraged.

Definitions can be deadly: NASA has implemented a new regulation that defines Sensitive but Unclassified information as:

“Unclassified information, which, if lost, misused, accessed or modified in an unauthorized way, could adversely affect the national interest, the conduct of Federal programs, or the privacy of individuals. Examples include information which if modified, destroyed or disclosed in an unauthorized manner could cause: loss of life; loss of property or funds by unlawful means; violation of personal privacy or civil rights; gaining of an unfair commercial advantage; loss of advanced technology, useful to competitor; or disclosure of proprietary information entrusted to the Government.”

The problem with the definition, in addition mixing national security and privacy and the “conduct of federal programs” in the same unclassified bundle, is that it points to “safeguarding” measures without providing a disclaimer that the designation doesn’t make the information exempt from FOIA.

NASA did leave the door open for comment and we may urge some modification.

Two money bills that provide much more: In the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, Congress directs its Transportation Security Administration to both clarify and narrow the use of “Sensitive Security Information” as a safeguarding designation. SSI is used by the Transportation Security Administration to shield information related to all forms of transportation. When so designated, information is exempt from FOIA. The conference report cites “insufficient management controls” and says Congress also wants annual reports on what’s been designated SII.

The Intelligence funding bill extends the CIA’s statutory exemption for information related to “sources and methods” the new Director of National Intelligence and, indirectly, to all the agencies under his umbrella.

See our website for more detail.

Pete Weitzel