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Nebraska Department of Environment & Energy wins 2023 Golden Padlock Award

"Golden Padlock Award Winner" text over redacted public records request in green.

A staunch commitment to blocking the release of internal emails about a growing public health risk has earned Nebraska Department of Environment & Energy the 2023 Golden Padlock Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. The award honors the most secretive government agencies in the U.S. The agency originally quoted the Flatwater Free Press a fee…

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The art of access: Strategies for acquiring public records in an increasingly anti-media world

By Ashley Sutherland, Arizona State University Delays. Excessive redactions. Fees. These are just some of the issues journalists and other citizens face when requesting public records from the government. David Cuillier, director of the University of Arizona School of Journalism, and Miranda Spivack, a professor of journalism at DePauw University, offered tips and strategies on how…

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IRE Radio Podcast | BONUS: The State of the FOIA

It’s been 50 years since the federal Freedom of Information Act was signed into law. A lot’s happened since then – not all of it good for the press. We’re calling this bonus episode “The State of the FOIA” because, over the next 30 minutes, we’ll be talking to three experts to figure out what…

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Six lessons from a five-year FOIA battle

By Philip Eil, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on September 28, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. I filed my first Freedom of Information Act request on February 1, 2012. I was 26 years old, and chasing a story about my father’s med-school classmate, Dr. Paul Volkman, who had been convicted of a…

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