Reporters and political activists are suing in a U.S court contending that a U.S. anti-terrorism law, the NDAA, extends the definition of “supporter of terrorism” to include peaceful citizens working as activists, academic researchers, and journalists. -db From The Guardian, March 29, 2012, by Paul Harris. Full story
A 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans on the six member Federal Election Commission may cause a deadlock preventing the commission from honoring a district federal judge’s order requiring groups that spend money on ads mentioning candidates for federal office but do not advocate for or against them — to disclose their donors. -db From [...]
It would be fairer to examine copy for actual bias rather than to enforce an code of ethics on objectivity as is happening in Wisconsin where Gannett is disciplining 25 journalist for signing recall petitions, argues Jack Shafer in Reuters. Shafer writes that some political activity should be allowed as long as journalists declare it. [...]
To protect their commercial interests, major news organizations are opposing efforts for greater transparency of political advertising, a move that counters their reporters’ efforts to promote the public’s right to know. The news organizations oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to require television stations to put online files with information about who buys political ads [...]
Several thousand followers were cut off when the U.S. Supreme Court marshal’s office asked a lawyer to stop providing live updates through Twitter of the Court’s hearings on the constitutionality of the Obama health care law. -db From Reuters, March 27, 2012, by David Ingram. Full story
An Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the release of most of the report on the November pepper-spraying of U. C. Davis students during an occupy protest. The judge wrote, “The court is not persuaded that either the Legislature or the California Supreme Court intended [the law protecting officer information] to apply whenever public entities [...]
Media organizations have improvised new ways of providing real-time coverage of the historic argument in the federal health care reform cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this week in spite of the court’s rejection of requests for live video coverage. The Wall Street Journal used a team of reporters, some of whom left the proceedings [...]
Chicago Mayor Rahn Emanuel said he will not allow police to handcuff reporters during the May 21-22 NATO summit in Chicago. The mayor’s pledge came after the Chicago police handcuffed a TV reporter and a cameraman outside a hospital this month. The journalists were trying to cover the murder of a six-year-old girl, shot while [...]
In the latest incident of police arresting citizens taking photos of them in the course of their duties, Philadelphia police arrested a Temple University student. The police were making a routine traffic stop outside his home. The department established guidelines on the issue last September that ordered them to expect photos, videotaping and audio recording [...]
At the direction of the city Attorney, the Los Angeles Fire Department announced it was not longer releasing details about fires, medical calls and traffic accidents. The department’s public information officer said they were not allowed to provide information including the locations of crashes in compliance with a federal medical privacy law. -db From the [...]
The Army crimelab is attempting to fire its firearms branch chief for talking to a McClatchy reporter. The Army launched an internal investigation after a story a year ago about the loss of evidence at the lab. The lab is under pressure as Congressional leaders have been urging the military to investigate the lab’s handing [...]
Kevin Carrado, the publisher of the Green Bay Press Gazette, reports that the 25 Gannett journalists who signed recall petitions for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker violated Gannett’s principles of ethical conduct. To protect the impartiality, neutrality and objectivity of their coverage, Gannett is considering disciplinary measures against the journalists says Carrado. -db From a commentary [...]
A Republican congressman has introduced a new law to reform the Freedom of Information Act by subtracting exemptions allowing the administration to withhold information about the automobile and financial industry bailouts. -db From The Daily Caller, March 21, 2012, by Matthew Boyle. Full story
Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill that criminalizes secretly filming the operation of farms and processing plants. “The measure is aimed at preventing whistleblowers from taking the type of surreptitious images of farms and processing plants that have proven damaging to the meat industry,” writes Robert Gehrke in The Salt Lake Tribune. -db From [...]
The New York Supreme Court ruled that communications between New York and federal environmental officials are public record and must be released. Waterford town officials sued to obtain 344 records about dredging PCBs from the Hudson River. -db From the Seattle Post Intelligencer, March 22, 2012, by Michael Virtanen, Associated Press. Full story
Data showing responses to federal Freedom of Information Act requests indicate that the Federal Communications Commission is the most secretive government agency, even outdoing the Central Intelligence Agency. The FCC is rejecting FOIA requests at the rate of 48 percent dwarfing all other government agencies. The CIA by contrast rejects requests at the rate of [...]
Tags: CIA, FCC, FOIA, FOIA.gov, Homeland Security, News Gathering, NSA, open government, public right to know, secrecy, transparency
Experts on open government say that the University of California is violating the law in withholding portions of a police report on the pepper-spraying of Occupy protesters at UC Davis. Members of a task force investigating the November incident said they did not want to release parts of the report until the entire document was [...]
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stamped out the Los Angeles Fire Department’s policy of withholding basic emergency response details. The mayor acted after the city council criticized a new policy reversing the practice of providing rescue response details including the times, locations and type of emergency and age and gender of victims. -db From the Los Angeles [...]
In general, states are behind the federal government in releasing information online in ways accessible to citizens, but the states excel in financial disclosures of public officials. Some states also publish full texts of contracts, a practice not a part of federal governance. These findings are part of an OMB Watch report released on March [...]
The Obama administration’s record number of prosecutions for leakers may not be attributed solely to their zeal for secret government but rather more to the ease with which the administration can catch leakers with better surveillance and the availability of electronic records. A journalist at the 14th annual National Freedom of Information Day conference said [...]
A photojournalist must go to trial for a felony conspiracy and two trespassing charges incurred while covering the “Occupy Santa Cruz” demonstration. The photojournalist was with a group of protesters occupying a vacant bank building and posted a call for support on the web site for the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. -db [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected C-SPAN’s request to broadcast its March 26-28 hearing on the federal healthcare law but will allow the media same-day audio transcripts. “Every American should have the opportunity to see and hear this landmark case as it plays out, not just the select few allowed in the courtroom. The health care [...]
When the producers of the radio program “This American Life” were told by Mike Daisey that it would not be possible to talk to Daisey’s interpreter to check the facts of his account of labor abuses by Apple factories in China, the producers should have ignored Daisey’s reassurances and taken other steps to verify the [...]
The Obama administration is asking Congress to grant new exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to keep secret selected information about cybersecurity, government computer networks, and certain industrial plants and pipelines. The FOIA already allows the government to withhold information that would hurt national security, invade personal privacy, reveal business secrets or compromise [...]
Syria may be prevailing in its brutal military campaign against rebel forces, but in spite of kicking out independent reporters, they have been unable to muzzle activists who have posted over 40,000 video clips on YouTube showing government violence. The activists are filming the violence at great risk to show the truth about the government’s [...]
In a trial in Los Angeles over whether the Jet Propulsion Laboratory acted improperly in firing a man for his belief in intelligent design, questions have surfaced about the privacy rights of witnesses and whether they can be asked about their religious beliefs. The lab claims the man was laid off during a routine reduction [...]
In an interview, Kaiser Health News’s Jordan Rau said that it made little sense for journalists to use patient safety data to guide the public in deciding which health care providers were best. -db From the Columbia Journalism Review, March 12, 2012, by Trudy Lieberman. Full story
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture says the secrecy surrounding the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning won’t allow him to do his job. Over 40 news organizations agreed the secrecy was excessive and joined to send a letter to the Pentagon protesting that the restrictions on reporters were greater than those covering the trials [...]
The Miami Herald is asking a New York federal judge to allow access to a docket in a criminal case that included a Russian company that exploited land investors in Florida and a businessman who pleaded guilty in an organized crime case but turned into a witness for the prosecution. -db From the Reporters Committee [...]
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press wants a California judge to dismiss felony charges against a photographer covering the Occupy Santa Cruz protests. The photographer was arrested for vandalism and conspiracy and misdemeanor charges of trespass. -db From a commentary for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, March 12, 2012. Full [...]
Laws building transparency in the federal government are bogged down in Congress according to open government groups even with indications that more openness would build public confidence. Congress is currently getting poor approval ratings. The laws mired in Congress include the Transparency in Government Act and the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. -db From the [...]
The Berkeley police chief is under fire for sending an officer to a reporter just after midnight to discuss the police chief’s concern that the reporter erred in reporting the police department’s response to the beating death of a man last month. Critics said such a visit from an armed officer in the middle of [...]
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press along with 46 news organizations is asking the Defense Department for better access to court records during the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. Manning is accused of providing classified war documents to WikiLeaks. The request came in the wake of complaints by journalists covering the trial [...]
A federal judge ruled a journalist could have access to an FBI document relating to what the journalist claims is former president Ronald Reagan’s work as an FBI informant before he ran for president. The journalist says that the FBI helped Reagan in his political career and argued that the FBI’s file on Reagan could [...]
The staff of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes is worried that a move from its headquarters in Washington, D.C. to a military base 30 miles away may compromise its independence. The move would save $1 million a year in rent. The newspaper has often riled military officials by running criticisms from rank and file [...]
Ahead of the G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago in May, a county judge found that the state’s eavesdropping law was unconstitutional. The law makes it a felony to record any conversation without the consent of all parties and carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison if a police officer is recorded [...]
A Idaho billionaire Frank VanderSloot has made legal threats against journalists and bloggers writing about his politics and business practices. He recently sent threatening letters to Mother Jones and Forbes to force them to temporarily remove unfavorable coverage. -db From a commentary for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, March 2, 2012, by Trevor Timm. Full story
With both houses of Congress passing versions of the law making it illegal for legislators to engage in insider trading, the public may soon gain access to the financial transactions of their lawmakers and members of the executive branch. The law would require reporting of financial transactions every 30 or 45 days. -db From POLITICO, [...]
United States prosecutors are planning to indict WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, on espionage or conspiracy charges according to e-mails from Stratfor, an intelligence analysis company that works for the federal government. WikiLeaks and Anonymous obtained the e-mails through hacking and are releasing them to news media throughout the world including The Sidney Morning Herald. -db [...]
After it came to light that secret legal memos existed backing a “targeted killing” policy, the Obama administration blocked the release of the memos. Writing for the Citizens Media Law Project, Justin Silverman makes a case for transparency particularly in the case that the government is hiding an important policy rationale behind a secrecy shield. [...]
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