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16 March 2017
Two excerpts from a report by David Cuillier of the University of Arizona School of Journalism. Based in part on a survey, the report was commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Cuiller also wrote an op-ed about the study. Below are the instruction and the conclusions sections. INTRODUCTION People must have […]
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8 September 2016
A column by a US journalist questioning whether emails should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act triggered an outpouring of rebuttals. “Treating email as public by default rather than private like phone calls does not serve the public interest,” wrote Matthew Yglesias in Vox, prompting numerous, mostly critical responses. One detailed reply came from […]
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1 July 2016
President Barrack Obama on June 30 signed into law a package of Freedom of Information Act reforms, using the occasion to release a detailed defense of his FOI record. The amendments (S. 337, committee report) write into law a specific presumption of openness, strengthen the FOIA ombudsman, put a time limit on the use of the deliberative process exemption and […]
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15 June 2016
By Toby McIntosh Reforms are coming to the US Freedom of Information Act. The House on June 13 approved a Senate bill to amend FOIA and President Obama will sign it, the White House said. The bill writes into law a specific presumption of openness, strengthens the FOIA ombudsman, puts a time limit on the use of the […]
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9 June 2016
Pro-transparency groups in the United States have objected to provisions in a defense bill that would restrict access to information. More than 30 called for the removal of three exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the Senate National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2017 (S. 2943). “The FOIA exemptions would severely undermine […]
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9 June 2016
By Lauren Harper The author writes a weekly round-us of US FOIA news. Click here to sign up for the weekly FRINFORMSUM email newsletter. Harper works for the National Security Archive, also the parent of FreedomInfo.org. Tom Blanton, the National Security Archive’s Executive Director, recently told a packed house at Columbia School of Journalism’s FOIA @ 50 conference […]
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19 April 2016
By Toby McIntosh An advisory committee on the US Freedom of Information Act has recommended that government agencies should be given more administrative discretion not to charge fees. Ending two years of work, the advisory committee (which will be reconstituted) made this suggestion and others as part of a call for the Office of Management […]
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14 April 2016
Several US legislators are planning to introduce legislation designed to open up more government data in useable formats. “Specifically, this bill defines open data without locking in yesterday’s technology; creates standards for making federal government data available to the public; requires the federal government to use open data to improve decision making; and ensures accountability […]
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7 April 2016
The new Liberal government in Canada has decided to delay for two years making promised reforms to the Access to Information Act, according to a top official quoted an article by Jim Bronskill in The Globe and Mail and another, by Alexander Boutilier, in Cambridge Times Some short-term fixes, however, could be on the way soon, […]
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15 March 2016
The US Senate on March 15 approved by unanimous consent a set of amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. The Senate bill (S 337) is different in some ways from a bill previously passed unanimously by the House of Representatives. These differences will have to be reconciled before the legislation is sent to President […]
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9 March 2016
The Obama administration lobbied against legislation to reform the Freedom of Information Act that died in late 2014. DOJ’s positions, unacknowledged at the time, are described in documents obtained through a FOIA lawsuit by Freedom of the Press Foundation. (Full DOJ memo laying out opposition to FOIA reform and 114 pages of other FOIA’d documents.) The […]
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17 February 2016
The Obama administration has made only “limited” progress toward achieving its stated goals to improve access to information, according to a detailed assessment issued Feb. 16 by the OpenTheGovernment.org. The report developed by 23 civil society organizations analyzes the administration’s efforts toward fulfilling 16 commitments. They were made in the second US national action plan created […]
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4 February 2016
Armed with a $35,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, New York entrepreneur Max Galka hopes to map the information available in US. federal agencies. Galka plans to populate his FOIA Mapper website with a catalogue of government information systems, indexed by subject and with descriptions of each system. For example, a user might enter “noise” […]
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17 January 2016
By Lauren Harper This article was first published Jan. 15 in Unredacted, a sister blog from the National Security Archive. The Unredacted version includes some additional charts. What percentage of agency FOIA costs did Congress intend agencies to recover through FOIA fees? All? Most? Half? Something else? It’s impossible to say since the Office of […]
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12 January 2016
The US House of Representatives Jan. 11 easily approved a bill (H.R. 653) that advocates say will improve the freedom of information act. A last-minute addition to the House bill would protect against disclosures that would “adversely affect intelligence sources and method,” but the changes largely codify existing practice, according to FOI experts, who nonetheless were […]
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2 December 2015
The Washington, D.C., City Council Dec. 1 approved a policy for the release of video from cameras worn by police officers. The policy covers release of body worn camera (BWC) footage outside the FOIA process in the following situations: To the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Office of Police […]
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1 October 2015
A pro-transparency coalition in the United States has said in a report that the Obama administration is not living up to its commitments regarding freedom of information. OpenTheGovernment.org reviewed activity on the current U.S. National Action Plan prepared as a member of the Open Government Partnership. It found that “despite commendable efforts and some meaningful progress, the […]
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14 September 2015
By Joseph Lichterman The author is a staff writer at NiemanLab where article was first published under a Creative Commons license. For the past year, Beryl C.D. Lipton has been investigating the private prison system in the United States. She’s a reporter for MuckRock, a news site that covers government transparency issues and also helps its users access government documents. […]
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22 July 2015
James Holzer, Senior Director of FOIA Operations at the Department of Homeland Security, has been selected to be the next US FOIA ombudsman. The five-year veteran of the DHS FOIA office will be director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) beginning in August, filing a position vacant for eight months. He has been […]
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21 July 2015
The Justice Department has no current position on whether first requesters should get a priority look at the documents released before they are made available to the public under a planned “release to one, release to all” policy, according to Melanie Ann Pustay, Director of the Office of Information Policy at the Justice Department. The […]
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16 July 2015
The Obama administration has announced that seven agencies will be putting online their responses to most Freedom of Information requests. The “Release-to-One: Release-to-All” pilot project will run for six months and then be evaluated, the Justice Department Office of Information Policy (OIP) said in a press release issued July 10. The effort is “designed to […]
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28 May 2015
Florida Governor Rick Scott on May 21 signed into law a bill that would substantially exempt from disclosure footage taken with cameras worn by police officers. Florida thus becomes the second state to create special exemptions for body camera footage. North Dakota passed such a law in April. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) In Texas, a […]
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21 May 2015
The Obama administration is still committed to the goal of creating a consolidated portal from which citizens can make freedom of information requests, according to official statements made to FreedomInfo.org. The assurances come after the recent “soft launch” of OpenFOIA generated questions about how much progress was being made. The latest version of OpenFOIA provides […]
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14 May 2015
By Toby McIntosh Only two state legislatures so far have passed bills restricting the disclosure of videos taken with cameras worn by police officers as the topic has proven hot to handle. Debates on the competing claims for transparency and privacy remain ongoing in many state legislatures, however, with advancing bills all tilting in the […]
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16 April 2015
By Toby McIntosh The “FOIA Portal” being developed by the Obama administration is underwhelming, according to persons interviewed by FreedomInfo.org. The portal will lack a key feature typically described as a “Consolidated Online Request Portal.” In particular, the yet unveiled portal will not provide a central place to file freedom of information requests. Nor will […]
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16 April 2015
North Dakota appears to be the first state to have passed a new law restricting access to videos taken with body cameras worn by law enforcement officials. The bill signed April 15 by Gov. Jack Dalrymple states: “An image taken by a law enforcement officer or a firefighter with a body camera or similar device […]
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16 April 2015
By Harry Hammit Hammit is editor and publisher of Access Reports, a bi-monthly report on U.S. and Canadian freedom of information legal developments. The recent revelation that Hillary Clinton used her personal email account to conduct government business while she was Secretary of State, retained custody of those emails on a personal server at her home in […]
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8 April 2015
The Justice Department hopes to produce by late May a “toolkit” to help jurisdictions make decisions about adopting the use of body cameras, according to a DOJ spokesperson and a consultation on the project. President Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing earlier this year issued a report that includes pro-transparency recommendations, and proposed creation of […]
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26 March 2015
President Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing has issued a report that includes pro-transparency recommendations, and recommends creation of “best practices” for states on topics including the disclosure of video taken from cameras worn by police officers. Obama appointed the task force after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the fatal […]
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23 March 2015
Major banks last year rejected a compromise proposal to resolve their concerns with freedom of information act reform legislation, according Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), to one of the leading House sponsors of the bipartisan legislation that died in the final days of Congress. Issa described the proposed deal at panel discussion on “Fixing FOIA” March […]
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17 March 2015
The White House Office of Administration on March 17 officially exempted itself from the Freedom of Information Act, relying on a seven-year-old court decision. The Office of Administration amended its regulations, relying on a judicial decision from 2009 in which U.S. District Judge Coleen Kollar-Kotelly dismissed a government watchdog’s lawsuit seeking records on missing White House […]
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13 March 2015
Only 40 percent of US government agencies systematically post online the records released through Freedom of Information Act requests, according to an audit done by the National Security Archive. The Archive team audited 165 federal agencies and found only 67 with online libraries populated with significant numbers of released FOIA documents and regularly updated. Proactive […]
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12 March 2015
By Lauren Harper and Nate Jones This column appeared March 11 in Unredacted, a blog from the National Security Archive, the publisher of FreedomInfo.org. Harper and Jones are Archive staff members. Today’s Department of State Office of Inspector General report has some scary numbers on the number of emails the Department actually preserves. Hillary Clinton […]
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11 March 2015
Eight of 15 major U.S. agencies improved their scores on an “Access to Information Scorecard,” according to a report by a nongovernmental organizational, which reported that federal agencies “are still struggling to effectively and consistently implement public disclosure rules.” The report was the second comparative study by the Center for Effective Government and it concerns […]
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5 March 2015
By Lauren Harper and Nate Jones The National Security Archive and other groups recently proposed an amendment to the House FOIA Reform bill that would allow all FOIA processors access to all electronic records systems for the processing of FOIA requests. This fix would have gone a long way in allowing State Department FOIA processors and […]
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5 March 2015
By Ken Rubin The author is an Ottawa-based investigative researcher and citizens’ advocate. This article first appeared in J-Source, March 3. This article is a condensed and edited version of “Tales from the front line: Canada’s FOI Warrior”, Rubin’s chapter in FOI 10 Years On: Freedom Fighting or Lazy Journalism?, just published by Abramis in […]
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26 February 2015
By Toby McIntosh and Lauren Harper Bills to restrict or prevent the public disclosure of videos taken by police officers wearing cameras are sparking debate in state legislatures around the United States. Anti-disclosure bills have been offered in half a dozen states, usually by legislators with law enforcement backgrounds. “Video recordings should not be subject […]
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5 February 2015
By Nate Jones This article first appeared in Unredacted, a blog of the National Security Archive, where Jones is the FOIA Coordinator. The Archive also publishes FreedomInfo.org. On Feb. 5, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Senate bill discussed in this report. The demise of FOIA reform bills in the last Congress is analyzed in […]
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24 December 2014
By Toby McIntosh The final days of modest legislation to reform the Freedom of Information Act were surprisingly dramatic. Still lingering as a key mystery is why House Speaker John Boehner refused to bring the bill up, sealing its fate in 2014. Passage was widely considered “a no brainer,” as one supporter put it. Unusual […]
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11 December 2014
Republican House Speaker John Boehner Dec. 11 gave no encouragement to supporters of a freedom of information reform bill clinging to hope for last-minute House passage of a bill with no known congressional opponents. “I have no knowledge of what the plan is for that bill,” Boehner said when asked about it by a reporter […]
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10 December 2014
Banking lobbyists are urging House leaders not to bring up the Freedom of Information Act Improvement Act of 2014, according to House, Senate and pro-bill sources. The opposition, from unnamed banking interests, comes as the House nears adjournment. Supporters hope the House will squeeze the Senate bill (S 2520) on to the agenda in the […]
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8 December 2014
The US Senate Dec. 8 unanimously approved amendments to the freedom of information act, with a slight, time-limited concession to the lone senator who had withheld his support. Negotiations with Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) resulted in “report language” – a non-binding, but influential description of Congress’s intent. Rockefeller had objected to a key provision in […]
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8 December 2014
A few more specifics have emerged about the substance of a last-minute debate over a Senate freedom of information bill. Both sides say discussions are ongoing while time is running out. Holding up action on the bill (S 2520) is Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W-Va), whose office Dec. 8 provided FreedomInfo.org with a more detailed defense […]
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5 December 2014
Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia on Dec. 5 said he opposed a pending freedom of information reform bill because it would have the unintended consequence of impairing enforcement of laws protecting consumers from financial fraud. His four-page statement confirmed reports that he is opposing the widely supported, bipartisan bill (S 2520), apparently the […]
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4 December 2014
The US Senate Dec. 4 came close to passing reform amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, but the day was suspenseful and inconclusive. With Congress about the leave for a holiday break, only a limited window is available for getting the bill (S 2520) through. Objections from even a single senator, known as “holds,” […]
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20 November 2014
The US Senate Judiciary Committee Nov. 20 unanimously approved reform amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. The bipartisan support for a somewhat modified version of the bill (S. 2520) is expected to improve the chances of passage in the Senate this year. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in an opening statement, “We have […]
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18 November 2014
Sponsors of a Senate Freedom of Information Act reform bill have dropped a provision dear to the heart of supporters. Gone is a so-called “public interest balancing test” to evaluate agency claims that disclosures would interfere with the deliberative process, according to a revised text to be considered Nov. 20 by the Senate Judiciary Committee. […]
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13 November 2014
The US Senate Judiciary Committee Nov. 13 delayed approval of a freedom of information amendments package, but the chairman predicted passage next week. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement issued to reporters: “I have worked with Senator Cornyn for months on the FOIA Improvement Act. It has broad bipartisan support, including the […]
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10 November 2014
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a meeting for 10 a.m. Nov. 13 to consider S.2520, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2014. With limited time left in this session of Congress and new current swirled by the recent election, the hope is for “unanimous consent” passage in the Judiciary Committee and expeditious passage on the […]
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6 November 2014
A judge in Arkansas on Nov. 5 issued an arrest warrant for a government agency official over claims he didn’t provide documents requested by an Arkansas newspaper. A prosecutor earlier this week had issued an arrest affidavit for the official, accused of a misdemeanor charge of violating the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Pulaski County […]
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29 October 2014
By Lauren Harper The author writes for the National Security Archive Unredacted blog. The FOIA Advisory Committee, established by the second Open Government National Action Plan and tasked to “advise on improvements to FOIA administration,” held itssecond meeting last week. The Committee consists of ten government and ten non-governmental FOIA experts – including the Archive’s FOIA Coordinator Nate Jones […]
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29 October 2014
By Harry Hammit Hammit is publisher of Access Reports, a bi-monthly report on U.S. and Canadian freedom of information legal developments. A ruling by Judge Rudolph Contreras finding that personally identifying information contained in several FTC complaint databases is protected by Exemption 6 (invasion of privacy), while almost certainly correct based on case law interpretation, […]
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29 October 2014
By Emily Shaw The author is National Policy Manager at the Sunlight Foundation and oversees its state and local policy work. This article was published Oct. 21 on the Sunlight blog. Our legally-protected access to public email records — the most voluminous source of official written records — is failing. Broward County, Fla. charging journalists […]
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23 October 2014
Concerned that the Obama administration has been largely mute on a pending bipartisan bill to reform the Freedom of Information Act, 50 groups Oct. 23 urged him to voice his support. The bill has support from both Republican and Democratic legislators, has already passed the House and would appear to have a god chance of passage, […]
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16 September 2014
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a Sept. 18 meeting at which one agenda item is S.2520, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2014. Under Senate rules, a matter may be “held over” to the next meeting at the request of any committee member, so there is a possibility that approval of the bill will be […]
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10 September 2014
By Lauren Harper The author is a research assistant at the National Security Archive focusing on FOIA advocacy and open government, as well as on U.S.-Iraq relations. This article originally appeared in The Brechner Report. The Tampa Tribune reporter Howard Altman submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this year to learn the […]
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4 September 2014
A U.S. government team has unveiled a prototype tool for making freedom of information requests online. The blog post about the consolidated request submission hub says the tool is part of an effort to: improve the FOIA request submission experience; create a scalable infrastructure for making requests to federal agencies; and make it easier for requesters […]
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20 August 2014
By Nate Jones The author is a staff member at the National Security Archive, the parent organization of FreedomInfo.org, and writes the blog Unredacted where this article appeared Aug. 19 under the title “The CIA Misapplies FOIA Exemptions to Continue its Covert Attack on Mandatory Declassification Review. And Why it Matters.” On Friday September 23, […]
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14 August 2014
By Harry Hammitt The author is the publisher of Access Reports, a biweekly newsletter on US and Canadian FOI developments. While disposing of most issues left outstanding in a series of lawsuits brought by University of Virginia graduate student Katelyn Sack, Judge Emmet Sullivan has inadvertently exposed the difficulty in making FOIA amendments designed to […]
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5 August 2014
The adequacy of online information disclosure in four countries has been tested with a new methodology that the researchers hope can be refined for wider use. The study covers four countries – Russia, the United States, Georgia and Belarus. It examines whether their official websites provide information in 47 specific categories and rates the adequacy […]
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4 August 2014
By Nate Jones This article is reprinted from the blog Unredacted, edited by Jones. Unredacted, like FreedomInfo.org, is published by the National Security Archive. The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the federal FOIA ombuds office that provides assistance in FOIA disputes, has begun posting its final response letters to FOIA problems it has mediated. To date, OGIS has […]
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24 July 2014
Legislation to solve what many openness advocates say is a major problem with the way government officials interpret the US Freedom of Information Act seems to be progressing well, with three recent positive bits of information emerging. First, the Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to vote on proposed FOIA amendments in September, FreedomInfo.org has learned. […]
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18 July 2014
By James H. Smith This article was first run July 15 in the Journal Inquirer and other Connecticut newspapers. Smith, a retired newspaper editor, is president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information. For more not the ruling see article in The Day. Why would seven judges decide that the police can keep information about crime […]
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7 July 2014
By Nate Jones This article first appeared in the Detroit News July 3. Jones is the FOIA Coordinator for the National Security Archive. Earlier this year, the Veterans Affairs Administration denied the Tampa Tribune’s Freedom of Information Act request for the names of VA hospitals where veterans died because of delays in medical screenings. To […]
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24 June 2014
This article was posted on the website of the National Security Archive, FreedomInfo.org’s parent organization. Congress may actually take action this year to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, according to the National Security Archive’s posting June 24 of the new bipartisan bill by leading U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX). The […]
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20 June 2014
The Archivist of the United States David Ferriero has appointed the 20 members of the new FOIA Advisory Committee. Ten are from within government and 10 from outside. Committee members are appointed to serve two-year terms. The first meeting will be held June 24, according to an announcement. Office of Government Information Services Director Miriam […]
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9 June 2014
A federal advisory group in the United States on June 5 recommended that the freedom of information act ombudsman should issue advisory opinions. Although this is permitted by law, the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) has not issued any such opinions since being established in 2007. OGIS assists individuals with FOIA requests, including offering […]
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6 June 2014
California voters June 3 approved a ballot measure requiring local governments to comply with the California Public Records Act (CPRA). Proposition 42 received 61.5 percent for, 38.5 percent against. The measure also mandates that local governments pay the cost of complying with the records and meetings law, an expense the state previously was required to pay, according […]
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30 May 2014
By Lauren Harper This article was published in Unredacted, a blog of the National Security archive, with which FreedomInfo.org is affiliated. Harper is an NSA staff member. The National Security Archive has partnered with our colleagues at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), to publish a set […]
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16 May 2014
President Barack Obama on May 9 signed legislation aimed at standardizing and publishing the federal government’s spending data. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, known as the DATA Act (S. 994) would require the Treasury secretary and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish government-wide financial data standards. (See previous FreedomInfo.org […]
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9 May 2014
A New York state court has ruled that the names of retired public workers in public pension systems are releasable under the state’s freedom of information law. The Court of Appeals May 6 decided that disclosure of names is not an invasion of privacy, but that their addresses shouldn’t be made public. The state retirement […]
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2 May 2014
By Lauren Harper This article was first published on the National Security Archive blog Unredacted. Harper is an Archive staff member. The US was the first country to enact a modern Freedom of Information Act, and was the model other countries looked towards when crafting their own FOI laws. Now, however, the US lags behind the […]
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18 April 2014
The Virginia state Supreme Court ruled April 17 that emails and unpublished research by a university professor are proprietary records dealing with scholarly research and therefore exempt from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Skeptics of global warming, State Del. Robert Marshall (R-Prince William) and the American Tradition Institute, had sought records from […]
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11 April 2014
The US Senate has passed bill intended to make government spending more transparent. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 994), passed April 10 by unimous consent, would require the treasury secretary and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish government-wide financial data standards as a first step toward more robust […]
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26 March 2014
By Ed Jacovino Jacovino is a reporter with the Journal Inquirer, of Connecticut, where this article first appeared on March 25, 2014. Reprinted with permission. HARTFORD — A legislative committee on Monday balked at a measure that would have kept from the public certain crime scene photos and 911 calls, stripping several right-to-know restrictions from […]
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21 March 2014
(Ed. Note: FOI Notes is unusually U.S.-centric this week because of Sunshine Week. Send submissions for FOI Notes to freeinfo@gwu.edu) United States: “The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding […]
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17 March 2014
By Steven Aftergood This article appeared March 17 in Secrecy News Blog. Even when the Central Intelligence Agency possesses a releasable document in a softcopy format, the Agency typically refuses to release the softcopy version in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, and insists on providing a hardcopy version of the document instead. A […]
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7 March 2014
A government advisory body in the United States is considering preliminary suggestions to improve dispute resolution for freedom of information requests. A committee of the Administrative Conference of the United States met on the topic March 6, and will continue deliberating on the recommendations, derived from a lengthy research paper on FOIA disputes. A main focus is the […]
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28 February 2014
The US House Feb. 25 voted 410-0 to pass a bill (H.R. 1211) intended to improve the operation of the Freedom of Information Act. No similar bill exists in the Senate, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on FOIA on March 11. FOIA advocates are hoping that a Senate bill […]
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27 January 2014
A Connecticut state task force Jan. 24 issued a report supporting restrictions on public access to crime scene information. The 17-person panel was formed in the wake of the 2013 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The legislature subsequently passed a law that blocked release of crime scene photos and videos to the public. It […]
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17 January 2014
The US House of Representatives on Jan. 14 unanimously passed a bill to ensure the timely release of presidential records and require the retention of emails. Twenty-three organizations wrote a letter of support for the bill, which is similar to legislation passed in previous years and which still needs approval from the Senate. Among other […]
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30 December 2013
William New, editor of Intellectual Property Watch, has filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents related to the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The US Trade Representative has denied his March 2012 request, saying that the draft text of the intellectual property chapter of the TPP is exempt as “national security information.” […]
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6 December 2013
Controls should be placed on instant messaging “to preserve government records and respect the federal access to information law,” according to a report by Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada, issued Nov. 28. The recommendations already have been rejected by the government. “After investigating the use of wireless devices and instant messaging in 11 federal […]
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6 December 2013
By Toby McIntosh The Obama administration Dec. 6 proposed five steps to “modernize” the freedom of information act. The ideas appear in the second U.S. national action plan prepared as a member of the Open Government Partnership. In an unexpected development, the plan includes a series of commitments related to foreign surveillance efforts. Regarding freedom […]
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11 November 2013
By Lauren Harper This article was published Nov. 8 in Unredacted, the blog of the National Security Archive The Open Government Partnership (OGP), an international coalition working to make governments more transparent and accountable, just wrapped up its latest summit in London. For the summit, each government was asked to “announce an ambitious new open […]
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8 November 2013
The United States will create a “FOIA Modernization” advisory group, according to the Oct. 31 preview of its second Open Government Partnership action plan. The government also plans to develop a consolidated online portal for making FOIA requests. In addition, steps will be taken to develop a core federal FOIA regulation, while still allowing for […]
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8 November 2013
By Alasdair Roberts Roberts is Jerome L. Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy at Suffolk University Law School, Boston. This article ran on Nov. 5 in Roberts’ blog. Back around the turn of the millennium, I was doing a lot of writing on freedom of information laws and other topics relating to governmental openness. […]
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23 October 2013
By Toby McIntosh The U.S. government intends to create a national portal for making freedom of information requests and move toward a single, national FOIA regulation, according to persons briefed this week and government officials. These and other FOIA-related changes would be made part of the second U.S. national action plan as a member of the […]
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7 October 2013
By Toby McIntosh Only this audience would laugh so heartily at five surrealistic stories about government denials of access to public information. The incredulous appreciation of unfortunate stories stemmed from shared experience. The 100 persons attending the annual awards ceremony in Sofia, Bulgaria, were a community celebrating the pro-transparency efforts of journalists, activists and public officials. “Golden Key” […]
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3 October 2013
By Harry Hammit Hammit is publisher of Access Reports, a bi-monthly report on U.S. and Canadian freedom of information legal developments. The D.C. Circuit has finessed the issue of whether visitors’ logs at the White House or the Vice President’s office are agency records subject to FOIA because they are used by the Secret Service […]
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14 August 2013
The U.S. state of Texas has adopted a new law permitting government officials to establish online messaging systems to communicate. Another bill passed by the legislature defines the standards that governs the disclosure of public officials’ emails and brings state contractors under the Public Information Act. The messaging legislation (Senate bill 1297) authorizes electronic written […]
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22 July 2013
By Steven Aftergood Aftergood is Director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. This article first appeared on the FAS blog, Secrecy News, on July 22. Sometimes it seems that the national security classification system is static, monolithic and hopelessly inert. But in fact it is relentlessly in motion, with […]
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10 July 2013
A California state court ruled July 8 that the state records formatted with an electronic geographic information system (GIS) are subject to the state records law at nominal cost. “The California Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Sierra Club v. County of Orange means that the Sierra Club, which has been seeking Orange County’s basic set […]
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3 July 2013
A U.S. district court has found fault with a rule that would force oil and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. The Judge cited “two substantial errors,” vacated the rule and sent it back to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 2012 rule, mandated by Congress, had been challenged by the American Petroleum Institute and […]
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10 June 2013
Quoting George Washington, a U.S. appeals court June 7 denied access to a document concerning unsuccessful trade negotiations conducted in the 1990s and 2000s. A three-judge panel overturned a lower court ruling giving deference to the opinion of the U.S. Trade Representative that disclosure of a past position could jeopardize future negotiations and limit the […]
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7 June 2013
U.S. officials are using private emails accounts to conduct government business and agencies are refusing to disclose the email addresses, according to a May 4 report by Jack Gillum of the Associated Press. The AP story said the practice ”complicates agencies’ legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails under public records requests and congressional inquiries.” “The scope of using the secret accounts across government remains a mystery,” the […]
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7 June 2013
Photographs of homicide victims will not be disclosable in the U.S. state of Connecticut under a new law. Written in the wake of the shootings of 26 persons in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the legislation (Senate Bill No. 1149) was passed overwhelmingly June 5 and signed by the governor June 6. Originally limited […]
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10 May 2013
President Barrack Obama May 9 issued an Executive Order and a Policy Directive requiring that data generated going forward by the government be made available in open, machine-readable formats. Agencies also must create and maintain an “enterprise data inventory” that accounts for datasets used in the agency’s information systems” and indicates which are available to the […]
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30 April 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court April 29 ruled that a state may prohibit non-state residents from using the state freedom of information law. The unanimous opinion upheld restrictions by the state of Virginia in a case, McBurney v. Young, No. 12-17, brought by a California man seeking property records for commercial clients and a Rhode Island […]
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25 April 2013
Legislation recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), would provide companies liability protection for companies sharing cyberthreat information with the federal government. It also would exempt all such shared information from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The bill is being criticized largely for allowing […]
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25 April 2013
The U.S. Justice Department Office of Information Policy has launched a new page containing summaries of significant court decisions on freedom of information, according to an announcement. The enhanced Court Decisions page “adds two powerful features for viewing and searching through our case summaries while continuing to allow users to view these summaries by topic […]
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5 April 2013
The first country self-assessment reports on progress toward fulfilling their Open Government Partnership commitments are surfacing, with more expected in the coming weeks. Posted on the OGP website now are reports from two countries: the Philippines and the United States. The United Kingdom has released its draft report, but posting of a final report will […]
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5 April 2013
A federal appeals court April 2 ruled against a federal agency strategy that impeded Freedom of Information Act requesters from going to court to fight delays in responding to FOIA requests. The court overturned a lower court’s 2012 decision in a case brought by the liberal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), against […]
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5 April 2013
The United States Justice Department plans to develop metadata standards “that will facilitate the ability of interested persons to search for and retrieve documents across websites and disparate record keeping systems,” according to a recent announcement. The plan, included in the Department of Justice’s version 2.0 of its Open Government Plan, envisions creation of a “virtual” […]
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14 March 2013
Sunshine Week in the United States March 11-15 prompted congressional hearings, new and recycled legislative proposals and numerous reports on the status of freedom of information. In the House of Representatives, a draft FOI bill was offered by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), a rare […]
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11 March 2013
The Obama administration is complimented and chastised in a new report on the transparency of his first four years in office. “With the notable, glaring exception of national security, the open government policy platform the Obama administration built is strong. However, the actual implementation of open government policies within federal agencies has been inconsistent and, […]
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7 March 2013
By Robert Freeman Freeman is Executive Director of the Committee on Open Government, a unit housed in the New York State Department of State that oversees and advises the government, public, and news media on Freedom of Information, Open Meetings, and Personal Privacy Protection Laws. He was a close observer when the state of New […]
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22 February 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court seems unlikely to a overturn a prohibition by the state of Virginia against freedom of information requests by nonresidents, according to most media reports on the case. The plaintiffs argued that the restriction in state law was unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce and the Privileges and Immunities Clause. The case (McBurney v. […]
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28 January 2013
The controversial publication by a New York newspaper of public records showing the names and addresses of handgun owners has resulted in a state law restricting disclosure of ownership data, backtracking by the newspaper, and a great deal of debate within journalism circles. The controversy arose after The Journal News published an interactive map showing […]
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4 January 2013
A U.S. federal judge has ruled that the federal government does not need to disclose internal legal opinions and other documents justifying the use of drones to kill suspected terrorist operatives abroad. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon in a 68-page opinion issued Jan. 2 largely rejected suits brought by the New York Times and […]
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31 December 2012
The publication by a New York newspaper of the names and addresses of handgun owners, although public information, has generated a substantial controversy. The Journal News published an interactive map to make it easy for readers to find some gun owners in New York’s Rockland and Westchester counties, outside of New York City. The paper […]
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6 December 2012
The U.S. Public Interest Declassification Board Dec. 6 issued 14 recommendations, including a proposal to move from three to two levels for classifying documents. The report “centers on the need for new policies for classifying information, new processes for declassifying information, and the imperative for using and integrating technology into these processes,” according to the announcement. […]
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4 December 2012
Reposted from the National Security Archive. For more information contact: Tom Blanton/Nate Jones/Lauren Harper 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu A government-wide Freedom of Information Act audit by the National Security Archive has found that sixty-two out of ninety-nine government agencies have not updated their FOIA regulations since US Attorney General Eric Holder issued his March 19, 2009 […]
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26 November 2012
The Canada’s conservative government is pushing through legislation (Bill C-27) to require more financial accountability and transparency by so-called First Nations – the governing organizations of indigenous peoples. The bill debated Nov. 23 in the Assembly would require First Nations to file annual financial statements and disclose the remuneration for chiefs and councilors. The Canadian […]
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8 October 2012
The Supreme Court of the United States Oct. 5 said it will consider whether states can keep persons for other states from using their freedom of information laws. The case involves the state of Virginia, which denied the use of the law to Mark J. McBurney of Rhode Island and Roger W. Hurlbert of California. […]
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8 October 2012
By Harry Hammitt Hammitt’s article appeared in the latest issue of his journal on FOI lega developments in the U.S. and Canada, Access Reports. The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy published its summary of the 2011 Chief FOIA Officers Reports Aug. 7 and followed that up with its summary of the2011 Annual FOIA Reports […]
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1 October 2012
Six U.S. government agencies have created FOIAonline, a website “that allows both the public and agency staff to make, monitor, and manage FOIA requests from a single website.” “Requesters may choose to submit requests and file appeals by registering for an account,” according to the explanation on the cost-effectiveness features for the new site. “This […]
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1 October 2012
Only eight of 57 agencies in the United States responded within the 20-day disclosure window to requests for information filed by Bloomberg News to test the freedom of information system. The requests filed in June were for information about official travel by their top official. About half of the 57 agencies eventually disclosed information by […]
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20 September 2012
The Obama administration has put an “impressive amount of effort” into fulfilling the commitments made in the U.S. national action plan, created as a member of the multilateral Open Government Partnership, according to an assessment by a watchdog group. The progress report by OpenTheGovernment.org and others organizations evaluates the administration’s implementation of the plan so […]
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14 September 2012
The U.S. coalition OpenTheGovernment.org has issued a report saying that President Obama’s transparency promises are falling short. Patrice McDermott, Executive Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, said, “The Obama Administration has set policies that are starting to turn the tide in favor of open government. But, as far as we can tell from existing numbers, those policies have […]
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27 August 2012
The Obama administration Aug. 24 issued a memorandum on managing government records, with President Obama stating “…proper records management is the backbone of open Government.” Among other things, the memorandum will require all agencies to identify a senior official responsible for records, provide plans for improving or maintaining its records management program, especially electronic records; […]
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27 August 2012
A federal judge in United States has provided a detailed examination of proper electronic search techniques in the freedom of information context. The lengthy decision by Judge Shira A. Scheindlin came in the context of a request for agency records regarding immigration. She criticized the federal agencies involved for their search efforts, and provides an […]
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6 August 2012
Connecticut is ranked first and South Carolina last in a new evaluation of state access laws in the United States. The survey of the laws and their effectiveness was done by local reporters using an evaluation scheme prepared by State Integrity, a nongovernmental organization. “In state after state, the laws are riddled with exemptions and […]
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30 July 2012
The FOIA Ombudsman in the United States is seeking to make official FOI letters more readable. The Office of Government Information Services in a recent blog post asked government agencies to submit their template letters and offering to help. A recent Ombudsman’s blog post noted a law that went into effect in late 2011 mandating […]
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5 July 2012
Marking the 46th anniversary of President Johnson’s signing the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archive July 4 posted a compilation of 46 news headlines from the past year made possible by active and creative use of the FOIA. This representative sample, drawn from hundreds of FOIA stories reported by newspapers, blogs, broadcasters, and researchers, describe […]
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21 June 2012
By Jason Leopold The following copyrighted article appeared June 15 in Truthout.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing independent news and commentary, and is reprinted with permission. The Obama administration continues to disseminate a flawed narrative about President Obama’s commitment to open government. Just last week, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters during a […]
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21 June 2012
An “Open Government Innovation Partnership” is being formed by mayors in the United States. A task force of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, chaired by San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, developed the initiative. The goal is “to help build an ecosystem that will help cities advance and prioritize innovation to improve government.” In a resolution, […]
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3 June 2012
By Caitlin Ginley Ginley wrote this article for the State Integrity Investigation, “an unprecedented, data-driven analysis of each state’s laws and practices that deter corruption and promote accountability and openness.” Early last month, lawmakers in Iowa completed work on a new open records statute. Senate File 430 creates the Iowa Public Information Board, a nine-member […]
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29 May 2012
Florida Governor Rick Scott has created a website at which the public can view his email and 11 of his top staff members. Under “Project Sunburst,” the emails will be accessible to the public through an online, read-only e-mail viewer, subject to certain restrictions. “This unprecedented step gives the citizens of Florida and members of […]
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24 May 2012
President Obama May 23 told all federal agencies to make at least two government services available on mobile devices in the next year in a “device-agnostic way.” “Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere and on any device,” the president said in a statement. “By making important services accessible from your phone […]
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18 May 2012
More than year after the National Security Archive sued the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to declassify the full “Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation,” a U.S. District Court judge May10 sided with the Agency’s efforts to keep the last volume of the report secret in perpetuity. In her ruling, Judge Gladys Kessler accepted the […]
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4 May 2012
The United States has revised an indicator used to decide which countries qualify for foreign aid, somewhat elevating the importance of freedom of information and unfettered internet access. The changes were made last year by the Millenium Challenge Corporation, which uses a multi-faceted scorecard system to determine which under-developed countries qualify for development assistance. Not […]
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26 April 2012
The U.S. House of Representatives April 25 easily passed a bill (HR 2416) to standardize the reporting requirements for recipients of federal grants, loans and contracts. The potential uniformity is seen as a way to improve oversight of government spending and was supported by open government advocates and a new industry coalition. The bill would […]
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19 March 2012
Sunshine Week in the United States is the time when many organizations announce studies on various facets of access to information, Congress holds hearings on the FOIA, conferences are held and editorials are written. Debate continued this year on the adequacy of the Obama administration’s record on transparency. Lauren Harper of the National Security Archive […]
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13 March 2012
A U.S. district court judge has ordered the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to release a “classified” one-page document concerning a U.S. position on an issue in the failed negotiations aimed at creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas. The judge rejected a third round of government arguments that disclosure would damage relations […]
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9 March 2012
A civil society group in the United States, OpenTheGovernment.org, has established a website to coordinate U.S. CSO activities in the context of the Open Government Partnership and is offering to help CSOs in other nations create websites, too. The new website unveils plans for creation of 19 “teams” that will work with the government on […]
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5 March 2012
Research by The FOIA Project questions whether an early Obama administration policy shift has made any difference in the handling of freedom of information cases. In March 2009 the new administration issued a directive which set forth new “defensive standards” memo that reversed a Bush administration interpretation. Under the new standard, the Department of Justice […]
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28 February 2012
By Harry Hammit Hammit is publisher of Access Reports, a bi-monthly report on U.S. and Canadian freedom of information legal developments. After the Supreme Court put most personal information off limits in its 1989 Reporters Committee decision, appellate courts in particular began to find any number of reasons why such information was protected by Exemption […]
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30 January 2012
By Trevor Timm Timm is an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in free speech issues and government transparency. He also curates the Twitter account @WLLegal that reports on legal news surrounding WikiLeaks, the right to publish classified information, and other freedom of the press issues. This article was first published Jan. 30, […]
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13 January 2012
The United States is nearing creation of a multi-agency portal that automates freedom of information processing and reporting, stores FOIA requests and responses in a repository and keeps records electronically, according to a blog post on the site of the national FOIA ombudsman. The site to go live in the fall of 2012 will allow […]
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30 December 2011
Two large U.S. civil society organizations with ties to the Obama administration Dec. 21 recommended that the government embark on a major effort to digitize more information held by government organizations. The letter stated, “Over the last year, a number of efforts have sprung up to create comprehensive digital libraries. The European Union has created […]
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5 December 2011
The U.S. government Dec. 5 unveiled “open source code” designed to help governments manage data and ultimately create more open government platforms around the world. The development grew from an U.S.-India collaboration and a next step, according to the White House blog post, will be an Indian announcement concerning software for an Open Government Platform […]
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28 November 2011
The Obama Administration Nov. 28 issued a memorandum on the management of government records, setting the stage for the expanded use of digital-based recordkeeping systems. “The current federal records management system is based on an outdated approach involving paper and filing cabinets,” President Obama said in announcing the orders. “Today’s action will move the process into […]
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11 October 2011
By Clara Hogan Reprinted by permission of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, a U.S. nonprofit organization which published this article Sept. 7. Your federal Freedom of Information Act request may not actually be processed by a government employee. With pressure for increased transparency from the Obama administration, many federal agencies, including […]
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20 September 2011
The United States Sept. 20 made 26 specific commitments as part of its national action plan for participation in the Open Government Partnership. Some part of the plan have announced previously, but a few items are new. “Probably the biggest announcement,” according to an administration official, is a commitment to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency […]
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16 September 2011
The Obama administration Sept. 16 released its own “compelling picture of how far the Administration has already come towards forging a more open government.” The report is introduced in a White House blog post by Steven Croley, a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Counsel to the President, which begins, “President Obama has made […]
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9 September 2011
The U.S. advocacy coalition OpenTheGovernment.org Sept. 7 issued its 2011 Secrecy Report finding some positive trends within the U.S. government. According to Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, “We are not as yet at the level of ‘unprecedented transparency’ the Obama Administration promises, but we are beginning to see signs that at least some of the Administration’s […]
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2 September 2011
Nine countries plus the initial core group of eight have pledged to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a U.S. official told FreedomInfo.org Sept. 2, bringing total membership to 17. The nine countries that have sent in “letters of intent” are Kenya, Guatemala, Honduras, Albania, Macedonia, Malta, Georgia, Moldova and Slovakia. More letters are expected, […]
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31 August 2011
By Harry Hammitt Hammitt publishes Access Reports, a biweekly newsletter. This article is reprinted with permission from his latest issue: Access Reports, Aug. 24, 2011, v. 37, n. 17 Relying heavily on previous district court rulings directly on point, Judge Beryl Howell has ruled that visitors’ log records for the White House and the Vice […]
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29 August 2011
A lack of resources has made news organizations “increasingly less inclined to file freedom of information lawsuits,” but citizens have “a growing interest in government transparency and are becoming more active in asserting their right to government information,” according to a new study in the United States. The surveys were conducted by the Media Law […]
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25 August 2011
Efforts by the eight conveners of the Open Government Partnership to draft their national “action plans” are slowly emerging, according to a FreedomInfo.org survey. However, in most countries the development of a plan does not appear to involve the wide public consultation called for in the “road map” for OGP aspirants to follow. In the […]
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25 August 2011
West Africa: The Africa Freedom of Information Centre has issued a study on access to information in Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria. Follow this link, and got to bottom of listings. UNESCO: The online report on the 2010 UNESCO World Press Freedom Day meeting, on the theme of: “Freedom of Information: The Right to Know” is available. […]
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16 August 2011
Consultations on a “National Action Plan” in conjunction with the multinational Open Government Partnership (OGP) have begun in the United States, but are being slighted for falling below the OGP’s consultation standards. The OGP is a U.S.-initiated multilateral effort to promote transparency internationally. Countries that join (eight so far) commit to prepare “concrete” national action […]
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21 July 2011
The United States and India July 19 announced plans to jointly develop “open source” platforms for other governments to use to post government data. The software will be available by the first quarter of 2011, according to one paragraph in a fact sheet on of bilateral science and technology understandings issued while U.S. Secretary of […]
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15 July 2011
The United States and India on July 19 in India will unveil plans to help other countries use technology to improve access to government information. The joint effort will focus primarily on “harnessing technology” to enhance openness efforts, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra told FreedomInfo.org, saving details for the announcement next week. The bilateral effort was announced last […]
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12 July 2011
By Toby McIntosh On the eve of the kick-off event for the Open Government Partnership, India dropped out, but the show went on, with enthusiastic pro-transparency speeches at a day-long event at the U.S. State Department in Washington. The unexpected pull-out by a country with an international reputation for its strong right to information law […]
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8 July 2011
By Toby McIntosh Organizers of the Open Government Partnership hope that more than 55 countries will be motivated by a kick-off event in Washington July 12 to prepare pro-transparency “action plans.” The action plans, to be drafted with public input, would be unveiled in early September in New York when heads of state gather for […]
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7 July 2011
Forty-five years after President Johnson signed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act into law in 1966, federal agency backlogs of FOIA requests are growing, with the oldest requests at eight agencies dating back over a decade and the single oldest request now 20 years old, according to the Knight Open Government Survey by the National […]
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6 July 2011
By Toby McIntosh The United States will host a multinational meeting July 12 at which representatives from more than 50 countries will discuss ways to bring more openness to their nations. Sixteen categories of transparency will be put on the table, according to pre-meeting materials obtained by FreedomInfo.org. The eventual goal is for individual countries to pledge […]
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10 June 2011
The United States on July 12 will host a meeting of the now nine-nation Open Government Partnership, at which time the coalition is expected to reveal more about the effort. Maria Otero, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs, is the primary U.S. representative for the coalition, announced by President Obama last year (See previous FreedomInfo.org […]
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27 May 2011
The U.S. Senate May 26 passed a bill (S. 627) to establish a Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays. The “Faster FOIA Act of 2011” would mandate that the commission: – identify methods that will help reduce delays in processing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted to federal agencies: – ensure the […]
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27 May 2011
By Harry A. Hammitt Hammitt publishes Access Reports, a biweekly newsletter. This article is reprinted with pemission from his latest issue. The Office of Information Policy at the Justice Department issued agency guidance May 10 on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Milner v. Dept of Navy, 131 S.Ct. 1259 (2011), both explaining the decision and […]
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6 May 2011
By Nate Jones FOIA Coordinator for the National Security Archive. Originally published in NSA’s Unredacted blog. With the news that President Obama has decided not to release photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse, twitter has been aflutter asking if the documents can be released under FOIA. Gawker has a pretty good piece quoting Daniel Metcalfe, […]
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21 April 2011
A U.S. regulatory agency has announced a 4-8 month delay in its development of rules for corporate disclosures relating to “conflict minerals.” Creation of the rules was mandated by Congress, and the Securities and Exchange Commission was told to issue a rule in April, but now is looking at an August to December time frame. The […]
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1 April 2011
United States: A new website developed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) will provide details about every new court challenge to the withholding of information by the Obama administration. The site, supported with a grant from the CS Fund/Warsh-Mott Legacy, is updated daily with the latest court FOIA filings and provides extensive information about […]
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1 April 2011
The U.S. state of Utah has done a fast reversal, repealing a heavily criticized law that would have restricted public access to some government records. Gov. Gary Herbert signed the repeal bill March 30, and a special committee has began work on redrafting the original legislation, which was hastily passed. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.) Open […]
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31 March 2011
Open government activists who met with President Obama March 28 for an unprecedented talk later described the 20-minute conversation in positive terms. In three accounts by those present, the president was described as “clearly engaged” and enthusiastic about making more progress on transparency. The president was given an award for his commitment to transparency, although the […]
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23 March 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court March 21 decided not to overturn two related federal appeals court rulings requiring the Federal Reserve to disclose details about financial aid to banks and other institutions during the 2008 financial crisis. Bloomberg and Fox News Network sought information under the Freedom of Information Act about which institutions sought and received […]
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16 March 2011
Although a scheduled meeting of freedom of information activists with President Obama on U.S. Freedom of Information Day was postponed, administration officials took advantage of “Sunshine Week” to make a variety of pro-transparency announcements. FOI leaders had planned to laud Obama publicly for his commitment to transparency while privately pressing him to do more. However, […]
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14 March 2011
The Obama administration is only about halfway toward its promise of improving Freedom of Information responsiveness among federal agencies, according to the new Knight Open Government Survey by the National Security Archive, released March 14 for Sunshine Week at www.nsarchive.org. On his first day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum instructing federal […]
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7 March 2011
The United States Supreme Court March 7 said the government could not stretch the personnel exemption to withhold Navy data and maps predicting the extent of potential damage from the explosion of an ammunition dump. The justices voted 8-1 to overturn an appeals court ruling that had supported the Navy’s decision not to release to the information under […]
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1 March 2011
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 March 1that corporations do not have a right of personal privacy under freedom of information laws. “We trust that AT&T will not take it personally,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote at the conclusion of his opinion for the court. AT&T sought to use the “personal privacy” exemption […]
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11 February 2011
A U.S. federal court has ordered the release of metadata – tracking information imbedded in electronic documents. The decision was issued Feb. 7 in National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Materials provided by the agency were unsearchable and unusable, the court said, because it came in the form of a […]
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20 January 2011
The argument that corporations have a right of personal privacy under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act was not received well by the U.S. Supreme Court during oral argument Jan. 19, according to virtually all reports. According to the New York Times account, “The claim that corporations have personal privacy rights met with widespread skepticism on […]
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9 November 2010
The United States and India this week announced a joint effort to export lessons from the Indian Right to Information experience. President Obama Nov. 7 pledged “approximately” $1 million “to support the work of Indian civil society in sharing their best practices abroad.” The Indian government promised a matching commitment of in-kind assistance “that will […]
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5 November 2010
President Obama Nov. 4 established a new system for the handling of certain sensitive government documents. The announcement pledges to replace “inefficient, confusing patchwork” that ” has resulted in inconsistent marking and safeguarding of documents, led to unclear or unnecessarily restrictive dissemination policies, and created impediments to authorized information sharing. “ “To address these problems, this […]
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8 October 2010
President Obama Oct. 4 signed legislation to repeal a controversial exemption to the Freedom of Information Act that was tucked in a major financial reform law passed recently. Critics objected to Section 929I of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which said the Securities and Exchange Commission would not be compelled to disclose […]
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8 October 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to review of the Third Circuit appeals court decision that a company has a right of privacy under the U.S. freedom of information law. In the case of FCC v. AT&T (No. 09-1279) the Third Circuit found the company had a right of privacy under Exemption 7(C), which protects […]
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19 March 2010
By Meredith Fuchs On January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama pledged in his inaugural address, “[we will] do our business in the light of day.” The next day, President Obama began the first full day of his presidency with the issuance of two presidential memoranda and an executive order designed to start the process of […]
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16 November 2009
by Yvette M. Chin Shanghai, China — On his first trip to Asia, President Obama made unequivocal statements about access to information as a universal human right at a rare town-hall style meeting of university students November 16. Over 2 years ago, the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information (OGI Regulations) […]
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25 August 2009
By Jesse Franzblau and Emilene Martinez-Morales Washington, DC — The US government’s August 24, 2009, release of a controversial CIA 2004 Inspector General report on torture brings new attention to the issue of how information on human rights abuses is treated and should be treated under freedom of information laws. Deadlines set by a federal […]
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23 January 2009
Washington, DC – On Day One of his administration, President Barack Obama took authoritative steps to “create an unprecedented level of openness” in the US government through an executive order and two presidential memoranda. International openness advocates, including more than 60 organizations and individuals in at least 30 countries, have issued a statement welcoming the […]
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30 January 2008
By Lawrence Repeta, Omiya Law School Tokyo, Japan — More than six decades after the end of World War II, responsibility for wartime suffering remains a highly sensitive political issue in Asia, nowhere more so than in the Japan-Korea relationship. When the two countries normalized relations in 1965, one treaty provision was intended to settle […]
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6 August 2007
The United States Senate Friday joined the House of Representatives in passing bipartisan legislation that will fix several of the most glaring problems with the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The OPEN Government Act of 2007, authored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), overcame a hold placed by Senator Jon Kyl (R-Az) […]
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15 March 2007
As journalists and advocates across the United States celebrated the third annual Sunshine Week, several groups released landmark audits of government openness and Congress moved forward with significant reform measures to fix the broken FOIA system. March 11: Several journalism groups published a nationwide audit based on results from individuals in 37 states who sought […]
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22 September 2006
UPDATE – 11 OCTOBER 2006 In response to a subsequent HCLU request, the Hungarian National Security Superintendence recently released an additional, previously secret NATO document entitled “Directive on the Security of Information,” dated 2005. The directive, enacted in support of NATO Security Policy C-M(2002)49, contains mandatory provisions related to classification, marking and handling of sensitive information, […]
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22 March 2006
By Toby McIntosh Riding a wave of transparency, the idea of encouraging Freedom of Information (FOI) laws as part of the development agenda is gaining currency, but slowly. With research and case studies increasingly identifying transparency as a key tool in fighting corruption and facilitating development, more attention is being paid to the development of […]
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16 November 2005
Towards an International Index Government transparency ranks as a fundamental human right and an essential element in developing effective democratic governance. Nonetheless, international freedom of information advocates face a daunting challenge in quantifying and evaluating government openness and access to information in different nations. A wide range of researchers have pioneered the development of indexes […]
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1 June 2005
The Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar (R-Ind), has made transparency reforms the central focus of legislation that also would authorize U.S. contributions to five multilateral development banks. Lugar’s bill contains instructions to the U.S. representatives at the five institutions, including the World Bank, and tells them to support several […]
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11 October 2003
by Thomas Blanton The International Herald Tribune, October 11, 2003, p. 6 Last month (September 23, 2003), Armenia became the 51st country in the world to guarantee its citizens the right to know what their government is up to. Armenia’s new freedom of information law is the latest outpost of the worldwide movement towards opening […]
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1 June 2003
The Group of Eight countries, meeting in Evian, France, on June 2 restated their support for some additional transparency at the multilateral development banks and added a new endorsement, for greater disclosure by corporations and governments of the revenues from extractive industries. Neither statement was seen as sufficient by transparency activists, but the extractive industries […]
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1 May 2003
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development April 29 approved amendments to its Public Information Policy over the objections of the United States. Specifically, the United States urged the bank to release draft versions of proposed country strategies before they are sent to the executive board for approval. The United States also pushed for the […]
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11 April 2003
The World Bank is moving toward a new policy that will at least double the number of contract bidding opportunities publicized internationally, according to bank officials and business sector observers. The change will substantially increase the visibility of bank-financed contracts subject to international competitive bidding, with the aim of reducing costs. If all goes well […]
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15 July 2002
By Thomas Blanton Published in Foreign Policy, July/August 2002 During the last decade, 26 countries have enacted new legislation giving their citizens access to government information. Why? Because the concept of freedom of information is evolving from a moral indictment of secrecy to a tool for market regulation, more efficient government, and economic and technological […]
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5 July 2002
By Lawrence Repeta and David M. Schultz Click here to view the Information Disclosure Matrix: A Comparison of Information Disclosure in Japan and the United States INTRODUCTION After more than 20 years of lobbying by Japanese citizen’s groups, opposition political parties and others, Japan’s national Information Disclosure Law came into effect on April 1, 2001 […]
