FOI Files
American clunker: U.S. FOIA falling behind other countries
**This article appeared in the Fall 2014 IRE Journal** By David Cuillier, University of Arizona School of Journalism When it comes to freedom of information, the United States can learn a lot from other countries. Now, 103 countries have freedom of information laws, most of those passed in the last 15 years. Many were modeled after the…
Read MoreForeign FOI: How to request records in another country
**This article appeared in the 2015 1st Quarter IRE Journal** By Emilia Díaz-Struck, Central University of Venezuela The lack of information in one country does not mean that the information does not exist. Many times, stories connect with different parts of the world, and searching in other countries could improve the findings. Persons and companies…
Read MoreSunshine Week audio playlist, tipsheets and more
All week long we’ve been celebrating Sunshine Week by sharing some of our best tips, tricks and techniques for filing successful Freedom of Information Act requests. Deborah Nelson, Kirsten Mitchell, Mike Ravnitzky and Kate Willson talked about the importance of using documents and offered ideas for beefing up your records requests. The crew from FOIA…
Read MoreReaction to ‘fracking’ investigation typifies journalists’ challenges
By Charles N. Davis Journalists and journalism advocates rightly focus a great deal of energy on freedom of information law, defending the rights of the press and public to access governmental information. Attempts to control the press through legal means constitute a daily threat to democracy and must be met with systemic pushback. Not all…
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