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Sept. 12, 2005: The Society of Environmental Journalists has released an anecdotal study of reporters' experiences with the Freedom of Information Act based on interviews with 55 of their members. The experiences are important indictors the problems reporters increasingly face in getting information from government agencies. (PDF document)

June 30, 2004: In a ruling that exemplifies how the Freedom of Information Act is supposed to work, a federal judge found that government agencies had made "frivolous claims" that their information was exempt from disclosure. From Secrecy News from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy.

Public records audit shows 47 percent compliance in Ohio
Ohio media outlets joined with the University of Dayton and Ohio University to conduct a public records audit in the state in April, finding that " employees in city halls, police stations and school boards across Ohio followed state law only half the time when asked for public documents." Other stories detail public employees' lack of understanding of the law and the penchant of county seat governments to deny public records. Some state lawmakers promised action in response to the audit: "It would be my hope that the public becomes outraged. These are the people's records. These records were paid for with tax dollars," said House Judiciary Chairman Scott Oelslager, R-Canton. The Plain Dealer's Tom O'Hara and Tom Gaumer led the effort, while the data collection and analysis was done by David Knox of the Akron Beacon-Journal.

April 2004: As the result of a Freedom of Information Act request from Russ Kick of The Memory Hole, the Air Force released 288 photographs showing soldiers' remains arriving home. This follows journalists' protests over the Pentagon's restrictions on allowing such images to be released to the public.

Seventy-five organizations representing journalists, librarians, privacy advocates and others sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge calling on the Department of Homeland Security to allow public input on procedures for "safeguarding" and sharing a vaguely defined set of information between firefighters, police officers, public health researchers and federal, state, and local governments. IRE has sent a similar letter.

Patriot Act II: A bill drafted by the Justice Department would significantly expand upon the existing Patriot Act by giving the government broad new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, simultaneously decreasing judicial review and public access to information, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

"Your Right to Know," by The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, includes information about public records law and links to government databases.

RCFP report: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press warns of "severe" threats to the public's right to know since Sept. 11.

IRE Director Brant Houston discusses the destruction of public documents to keep information out of the hands of terrorists and the risks of violating the right to public access.

Secret FBI files show how the bureau's covert campaign to disrupt the Free Speech Movement and topple UC President Clark Kerr helped launch the political career of an actor named Ronald Reagan.
In 1981, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Seth Rosenfeld, then a journalism student at UC Berkeley, sent the FBI a FOIA request for "any and all" records on more than 100 people, events and groups involved in controversies at UC over academic freedom, civil rights and national policy. The FBI spent more than 15 years and $1 million trying to suppress records revealing its unlawful covert activities at the University of California and its campaign to fire then-UC President Clark Kerr.

A patriotic press is a vigilant one: Inside the First Amendment
This is a column about freedom of the press by Ken Paulson, senior vice president, The Freedom Forum, and executive director, The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. He is an adjunct professor of law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Washington: Your Right to Know
Journalists from 25 newspapers and The Associated Press spent part of the summer of 2001 asking for copies of public records throughout Washington state. Unless they were asked to identify themselves, they did not identify themselves as journalists. They wanted to see how non-journalists would be treated when making these type of requests.

Security vs. Open Records
IRE is gathering recent stories and links about access to public information in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and the military action in Afghanistan.