Update 10/15/04
With design help from the AP, we’ve created seven regional, full page newspaper ads to display the more than 4,200 names of journalists and 40 organizations who signed the statement in support of reporters cited for contempt for refusing to disclose their sources or what those sources told them. The statement also endorses the concept of reporter’s privilege. On Monday, the Newspaper Association of America will send out a letter to publishers urging them to run the ad as a public service. Any way you can lend your voice, or that of your organization, to getting the ads published in your area will be helpful.
Charles Davis, the SPJ freedom of information co-chair, has compiled a Tool Kit on FOI Audits. He’s gathered how-to information and best practices tips from states that have had successful audits and brought it all together in a handy guidebook. It’s available online at http://www.spj.org/FOIToolkit.pdf or on CD-rom. You can contact Charles at . Or SPJ executive director Terry Harper at
Win some, lose some. The Defense Appropriation bill that passed Congress last weekend contained a modified exemption for satellite images. The language is narrower than the amendment CJOG and a number of member organizations protested a few weeks back. As approved, the bill exempts from FOIA only those images whose sale to non-government customers is already prohibited for security reasons. The same appropriations bill contained a “sense of Congress” amendment supporting the Defense Department policy prohibiting the photographing “of the transfer of the remains of deceased members of the Armed Forces.”
The Senate and House approved intelligence reform legislation that is in sharp contrast on open government issues. The bills are now in conference committee.
The House bill seeks to close birth records to the public and to enhance the security of driver license and social security information. There’s also a section “supporting” freedom of the press that authorizes U.S. pressure on nations whose media write things that are unfriendly. I’ve attached excerpts from the bill on those points. Comments welcomed.
The Senate bill calls for disclosure, for the first time ever, of the total budget authorized and the total amount appropriated for national intelligence. The House measure would allow all intelligence funding information to remain secret.
Both bills (S2845 and HR10) call for civil liberties protections even as anti-terrorism efforts are expanded. But the approaches are quite different. The Senate approach calls for an independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, reporting to the president. The House settles for a civil liberties officer reporting to the intelligence director.
The Senate bill would also create an Information Sharing Council that would be charged with making its reports to Congress also available to the public “to the greatest extent that is consistent with the protection of classified information and applicable law.”
Dow Jones reported that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has asked a number of reporters to sign non-disclosure agreements before being given access to critical energy infrastructure information (CEII). The agreements call for prior review of the stories by FERC. The newswire said it knew of only one instance where a reporter signed such an agreement. In at least five other instances, it said, reporters abandoned the story. FERC apparently had some modest second thoughts. It said it would make pre-publication review optional, not mandatory, but the option is denial of future access to the information.
Pete Weitzel
