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The FOI ADVOCATEJuly 31, 2006 Vol. 4, No. 27The E-Newsletter of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a unit of the Missouri School of Journalism "A government by secrecy benefits no one. It injures the people it seeks to serve; it damages its own integrity and operation. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty." -- 110 Congressional Record 17, 087 (1964) (Statement of Senator Long) NFOIC NEWS
SEND US YOUR STATE’S NEWS at daviscn@missouri.edu. “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -- Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928 (Articles link to external sites) TOP OF THE NEWS"Suppression of information is the surest way to cause its significance to grow and persist," the judge opined. "Clarity and openness are the best antidotes, either to dispel criticism if not merited or, if merited, to correct such errors as may be found." -- Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Federal District Court in Manhattan, ordering the Pentagon and other agencies to release another series of documents and videos on the detentions at Abu Ghraib prison. NEW OPEN GOVERNMENT GUIDE FROM REPORTERS COMMITTEE: Everything you ever wanted in the way of compiled FOI laws of all states, with analysis and provision-by-provision contents, this guide—formerly "Tapping Officials' Secrets"—is a must-have link. http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/index.php FOIA AT 40: Citizens, groups and corporations are putting in fewer requests for information from the federal government, but it's taking longer to get answers and they get turned down more often. The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government found in a study of 13 Cabinet departments and nine agencies that the number of unprocessed requests rose from 104,225 at the end of fiscal 2004 to 148,603 at the end of fiscal 2005. Meanwhile, the number of requests processed between 2004 and 2005 dropped from 522,817 to 477,937. As a result, unprocessed requests rose from 20 percent of the total processed to 31 percent. Full or partial releases of the information requested declined from 67 percent of all requests in 2004 to 63 percent in 2005. The federal Freedom of Information Act marks its 40th anniversary on July 4. "This study paints a very bleak picture for the Freedom of Information Act," said Rick Blum of the Sunshine in Government Initiative. "The law is having a midlife crisis at age 40. "Congress and the executive branch need to give this report a very good look," said Blum, whose organization is a coalition of nine news media groups, including The Associated Press and the coalition that produced the report. Blum lamented the failure of Congress last year to enact a bipartisan proposal that would have streamlined administration of the act and made it clear when Congress was exempting data from it. At the Justice Department, which oversees enforcement of the act governmentwide, spokeswoman Gina Talamona said an executive order issued by President Bush on Dec. 14 "recognizes the need for agencies to improve on their backlogs of pending FOIA requests and calls upon them to reduce or eliminate them." The order requires agencies to report on their progress by next Feb. 1. The coalition study found that since the Bush administration took office, the number of government employees working on FOIA requests in the 22 agencies studied declined by 23 percent. Lots and lots of commentary, too: Make government more open to the people Forty years ago, public gained its right to know ANTITERROR, IRAQ, ETC.“The danger to political dissent is acute where the government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect domestic security.’ Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent.” -- The ACLU quoting a 1972 United States Supreme Court opinion in United States v. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan,407 U.S. 297 (1972), which re-emerged in the news recently after Justice Department lawyers blacked it out in filings in a Patriot Act case. For the evidence, see a portion of the ACLU's court filing after the Justice Dept was allowed to censor it. ACLU SEEKS FBI PEACE GROUP RECORDS: The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska has asked the FBI for any information it may have collected by monitoring four peace and advocacy groups in the state. The ACLU has filed similar Freedom of Information Act requests in at least 20 other states on behalf of more than 150 groups and people. FEDS FUND STUDY ON WHY THERE ARE SO FEW EXEMPTIONS OUT THERE: The Defense Department is sending St. Mary's University School of Law $1 million to help fight terrorism by studying ways to limit the scope of the Freedom of Information Act, a landmark open government law that celebrated its 40th anniversary Tuesday. Jeffrey Addicott, who heads the school's Center for Terrorism Law, said the purpose of the yearlong project is to find ways to rewrite the law to prevent terrorists from getting sensitive information about water, sewer, electricity and transportation systems. The project's end product will be a "model" statute that state governments or Congress can adopt, he said. "The mission is to balance increase in security with civil liberties, which are precious," said Addicott, a former legal adviser in the Army Special Forces. But "in a time of war, balance goes toward security." Read the article. GAO REPORT DETAILS HOMELAND SECURITY BOONDOGGLE: Among the expenses that investigators described as abusive or otherwise questionable: -- More than 2,000 sets of dog booties, costing $68,442, that have sat unused in storage since emergency responders decided they were not suited for canines assisting in Gulf Coast recovery efforts. -- Three portable shower units for $71,170 from a contractor who investigators said overcharged the government. Customs and Border Protection agents could have gotten similar showers for nearly a third of the price _ and faster. -- 12 Apple iPod Nanos and 42 iPod Shuffles, worth $7,000, for Secret Service "training and data storage." Because the Shuffles cost less than $300, the Secret Service said they were not required to track them to ensure they were used properly. -- A beer brewing kit and ingredients for more than $1,000 for a Coast Guard official to brew alcohol while on duty as a social organizer for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. "The estimated price for a six-pack of USCG beer was $12," the investigators noted, adding: "Given that the six-pack cost of most beers is far less than $12, it is difficult to demonstrate that the Academy is achieving cost savings by brewing its own beer." GENERAL FOIA NEWSNATIONAL PARKS DEATHS A SECRET? When tourists died in a boating accident in Grand Teton National Park last week, the park's public information officer, Joan Anzelmo, says she wasn't sure what to tell the media.Anzelmo, who has worked at the Wyoming park for 11 years, usually would have released the names of the victims as soon as the families were notified. But recent park directives have complicated that process, leaving officers confused about whether they are allowed to provide such information. She eventually released the names of three people who died, after consulting with national headquarters in Washington. But the identities of people injured or killed on public lands may soon be withheld under new policies the Park Service is considering. Anzelmo says she will follow whatever guidelines the agency provides, but she believes it's best to release official information because it puts rumors and misinformation to rest. "I would dread having to go from the professional cooperation that we have with members of the news media who are covering stories in the national parks to not providing information that has always served the park and the agency and the public," Anzelmo said. The issue arose last year after the Salt Lake Tribune submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the names of victims of fatal accidents around Utah's Lake Powell. Darrell Strayhorn, a FOIA appeals officer in Washington, told the newspaper the names would not be released because of privacy issues. Read the article. UNION SEEKS PAY SURVEYS: A union representing doctors and dentists in the Veterans Affairs Department is considering legal action after the agency refused to release data used to set their pay. In April, the Veterans Health Administration denied a January Freedom of Information Act request from the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE wants to see the market surveys the agency is using to set new pay ranges for medical workers covered under a 2004 law that removed them from the General Schedule, which is the standard pay system for federal employees. VHA officials initially said they could not release the market surveys, which were purchased from four survey companies and used to set national base pay, because of copyright restrictions, but an appeal from AFGE is still under consideration in the general counsel's office, a spokeswoman said. The survey companies are being contacted and given a chance to object to the information's disclosure. Congress changed the rules for paying VA doctors and dentists to attract and retain more of the high-demand employees. The new system includes local, market-sensitive pay and performance components in addition to base salary. Performance standards have not been put into place yet, but local market decisions are in the process of being finalized. Read the article. FOI AT WORK: IT’S NO FUN BEING A PARK RANGER: For the nation’s forest rangers, the serenity of the woods increasingly is giving way to confrontations with visitors. Attacks, threats and lesser altercations involving Forest Service workers reached an alltime high last year, according to government documents obtained by a public employees advocacy group. In the Pike National Forest, the number of incidents of violence hasn’t gone up, although the number of citations has jumped, a forest spokesman said. Incidents in the Forest Service tally ranged from gunshots to stalking and verbal abuse and totaled 477 in 2005, compared with 88 logged a year arlier. The total in 2003 was 104. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. Brent Botts, district ranger for the Pikes Peak Ranger District, did not have exact figures but said, “We definitely have given more citations but haven’t noticed any increase in threats to our protection officers.” The increase was seen last year because of violations of fire bans that were imposed for the first time since 2002. This year, Botts said fire-ban violations are again up. Another category on the rise, he said, are citations for using off-highway vehicles in areas not designated for them. Read the article. USA OFFICIALS MUST RELEASE CALENDARS: Information about who senior U.S. Department of Agriculture officials met with in 2003 to discuss scaling back rules governing testing for deadly bacteria in meat must be released to a consumer advocacy group, a federal appeals court ruled. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled on June 30 that the calendars of five top USDA officials "were generated within the agency . . . prepared on government time, at government expense and with government materials," and "were not just 'stored' in their authors' offices, but were accessed and updated on a daily basis." Writing for the majority, Judge Merrick B. Garland discussed the calendars' use in informing agency employees of the officials' availability by distributing them to staff, and ruled that those factors together showed that the calendars are agency records subject to release. The appeals court panel reversed a July 2005 ruling from U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan that the calendars of six officials were not agency records and not subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act. The panel reversed regarding five of the six officials, relying on a 1984 case in its own court which requires an examination of the documents' creation, location, control and use. The court held that the sixth official's records did not meet the criteria of the test because as a lower-level official, his calendar was not distributed as widely as the others. Read the article. BIG SECRETS SURROUND BIG DIG: In the wake of the horrific July collapse in Boston’s Big Dig tunnel, officials at both the state Turnpike Authority and Federal Highway Administration yesterday refused to release even basic information about the work done on the I-90 Seaport connector. Under a blanket denial citing the ongoing criminal probes into the ceiling panel collapse that killed Milena Del Valle Monday, the Big Dig flatly refused to reveal: -- Deficiency reports that would show problems flagged during work on the Seaport tunnel; -- Construction “change orders” that show costly repairs and contract revisions that occurred because of deficiencies; -- Inspection reports and other documents that would show who knew about any problems with workmanship or building materials, and when they knew it. A Federal Highway Administration official denied a Herald request to view the taxpayer-funded reports at the agency’s Cambridge office yesterday, telling a reporter to submit a public records request. Turnpike officials also did not make the documents available, citing the criminal investigation. The culture of secrecy is nothing new at the Big Dig. U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-S. Boston) said even Congress’ Committee on Government Oversight had a difficult time obtaining records during 2005 hearings into Big Dig tunnel leaks. Read the article. WIELDING THE SECRECY STAMP ERRATICALLY: The Government Accountability Office has criticized the Defense Department for sloppy management of its security classification system, including the marking as "Confidential or Secret" material that Pentagon officials acknowledged was unclassified information. The GAO said in a report June 30 that one of the major questions raised by its study was "whether all of the information marked as classified met established criteria for classification." The GAO also found "inconsistent treatment of similar information within the same document." The GAO reviewed only a "nonprobability sample" of 111 classified Defense Department documents from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. To understand how minute the sample is, the GAO reported that in the five fiscal years between 2000 and 2004, the Pentagon was responsible for 66.8 million new classified records. That is about 13.4 million a year. The GAO report, which was sent to Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee on national security of the Government Reform Committee, and disclosed on the Secrecy News Web site of Steven Aftergood, concluded that "a lack of oversight and inconsistent implementation of DOD's information security program are increasing the risk of misclassification." Read the article. SLOW BUT STEADY? Federal agencies are taking longer to answer requests for records but provide fully responsive documents nearly nine out of 10 times, a congressional study says. The number of Freedom of Information Act requests carried over from year to year has risen 43 percent since 2002, the Government Accountability Office reported to a House subcommittee Wednesday. And the problem appears to be worsening. The increase in holdover requests was 24 percent from 2004 to 2005, compared with 11 percent from 2003 to 2004. The GAO found the median — or midpoint — time for processing requests varied greatly among agencies: from less than 10 days to more than 100 days. Part of the disparity may be explained by the requests' complexity, something not measured by the statistics, said Linda Koontz, the GAO's director of information management issues. Koontz said agencies reported that responsive records were provided in full in 87 percent of the requests processed in 2005. The House Government Reform subcommittee on government management held its second hearing on the ability of federal agencies to follow the Freedom of Information Act — which is 40 years old this month. The panel's initial session in May was the first time in five years the House held a hearing on how well the law was working. Read the article. IN THE STATES“It's not the public's meeting. It's the school board's meeting." -- Hampshire County, W.Va. School board attorney Norwood Bentley From the First Amendment Center NEW YORK SOLONS EYE FOI LAW: Should the state Legislature have to live by the same freedom-of-information law that applies to state agencies and local governments?Some lawmakers and government reform groups say yes. But the state's foremost expert on government secrecy has his doubts that it's necessary. The issue is before the Legislature because a central New York lawmaker has proposed a bill that would end the Legislature's exemption to the Freedom of Information Law, a measure passed not long after the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. The law requires that most government records be available to the public, with some narrow exceptions. "They (the Legislature) have a long list of exemptions that you do not see in the executive" branch, said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, an Albany-based good-government organization. "How can the public hold its own government accountable if they don't have access to have an informed opinion?" Read the article. A NASTY LITTLE TRICK: If there’s a new building going up in you neighborhood, you can have the meeting results sent for free via email. To see a three-page report about a building inspection, the cost to you will be about 60 cents. But what if you want to find out what was said about a local restaurant or bar by the Cambridge License Commission? That will cost you $50. That’s because, unlike most city boards and agencies, the licensing board has outsourced the rights to its meeting minutes to an outside company. And as a result, residents interested in seeing the minutes for the board’s public meetings are being forced to pay a steep price — $3 per page, with a $50 minimum charge for all requests. The decision by the city to turn over the rights to the licensing board meeting minutes to an outside transcription company could be a violation of state law. Public records law contend that municipalities may only charge the cost of searching for records and the actual cost of photocopying public records. The law encourages government agencies to waive fees when it benefits the public interest. But that’s not what’s happening with the License Commission reports. The Chronicle discovered the high-cost practice after a reporter requested a copy of the recorded minutes for a recent License Commission hearing, and was told minutes are copyrighted and belong to Arlington Typing & Mailing, a private company. Read the article. LOAN RECORDS MUST BE RELEASED, DEL AG SAYS: Middletown officials must disclose the names of 29 employees who received interest-free loans from town tax money, the state Attorney General’s Office has ruled. Businessman Jeff Bruette appealed the issue to the attorney general after town leaders denied his public records request for the information. Town officials said it was a personnel matter and not public under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. In a 14-page opinion, Deputy Attorney General W. Michael Tupman wrote: “When employees avail themselves of an interest-free loan from the Town, they must expect that there will be public oversight of the amount and repayment of the loan requiring disclosure of the name of the borrower. “The public has a legitimate interest in knowing the essential facts about a financial transaction between an individual and a public body including the name of the borrower, the amount of the loan, the terms of repayment, and the loan status,” he said. Tupman gave the town until July 22 to provide the information. In June, Mayor Ken Branner suspended the practice, under which employees with personal hardships had received up to $14,000, after it came under scrutiny from residents and state officials, including state Auditor R. Thomas Wagner. It was left up to Branner to determine what was a “hardship.” No employee who sought help ever was denied an interest-free loan. Read the article. AUDIT RECORDS DESTROYED: A consulting firm has destroyed public records behind its investigation of data thefts from Ohio University. Despite the requirements of Ohio’s public-records law, Moran Technology Consulting discarded interview notes and other documents supporting its audit. OU is moving to dismiss two top information-technology managers for negligence based on the findings of the firm, which has an $85,440 contract with the Athens university. OU did not authorize Moran to dispose of the records, said John Burns, director of legal affairs. The Dispatch learned the documents were destroyed when OU could not provide them in response to the newspaper’s public-records request. Ohio’s public-records law forbids the destruction of public records without a formal review and process. A civil fine of $1,000, plus legal fees, can be awarded to a person filing a successful complaint over the destruction of records. Lawyers for the two suspended OU managers, Tom Reid and Todd Acheson, also had requested Moran’s working papers. They say the publicly released version of Moran’s report contains few details about the accusations against their clients. "To put it mildly, it’s troubling and unfair," said Fred Gittes, a Columbus lawyer who represents Acheson. "There’s no question they’re public records. "What a horrible position this puts Tom Reid and Todd Acheson in. There are these very vague, generalized statements with no specifics, and now we can’t get the specifics." Read the article COURT EXEMPTS LETTER DETAILING CONSTRUCTION: The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that it was O-K for Eastern Michigan University officials to withhold some internal communications related to the construction of a president's home. The majority of the court ruled there are certain cases where not disclosing information better serves the public's interest. At issue is a 2003 letter written by Eastern's finance vice president to a member of the board of regents. The letter related to the president's home, which audits have said cost about 6 million dollars. The university did not release the letter publicly under a Freedom of Information Act exemption for frank communications between public officials and employees. Read the article FOI AT WORK: COACHES RAKING IN THE DOUGH: Fresno State's Pat Hill is the highest paid football coach in the Western Athletic Conference, according to information obtained by the Idaho Statesman. The Statesman, under the Freedom of Information Act and the California Public Records Act, obtained copies of the employment contracts of each of the WAC's nine coaches. Hill's contract is the only one that is not public record. He is employed by Fresno State and the Athletic Corporation, a private group that isn't required under the Public Records Act to release its finances. The Fresno Bee has reported that Hill will make $900,000 this year, with bonuses that can raise the total to $1.2 million. Read the article and view the list of salaries. FOI AT WORK: Fairfielder, Conn., residents Jill Kelly and Carol Leighton have won a Freedom of Information (FOI) case they brought against the Connecticut State Police. The women, co-chairs of the Connecticut Citizens Transportation Lobby (CCTL), a grassroots organization advocating for highway safety and better mass transit, were fighting to get information about a truck inspection station on I-95. State inspection stations, they fear, are not doing enough to get unsafe trucks off the road, they said. "We are gratified that the Freedom of Information Commission took this positive step, which will assist us in our investigations," Leighton said of the ruling. "It is crucial for the motoring public that weigh stations all over the state be effectively used in Connecticut's efforts to make our highways safer." Weigh stations are used to ensure trucks are not carrying overweight loads that can damage state highways; that the trucks are safe; and that the drivers are licensed and are not on the road longer than they legally should be, which can lead to fatigue and more accidents. Several motorists concerned over a perceived lack of activity at the Greenwich truck inspection station on I-95 called the transportation lobby to look into it. But Kelly and Leighton ran into a roadblock when they asked the State Police Traffic Unit for staffing records at the truck stop. The women say they made a string of phone calls starting in 2004. After constantly being referred to different officers, they were finally told in February 2006 that they could not have staff scheduling records. "They said, 'We can't give you that information. You have to go to FOI," Kelly said Monday. Kelly went to the Freedom of Information Commission Web site and filed a complaint the same month. State Police contested the complaint and were represented by Assistant Attorney General Henri Alexandre. After winning a preliminary hearing in June, the Connecticut Citizens Transportation Lobby won a unanimous ruling on July 12. State police must provide clear copies of the schedule for December 2005 and January and February 2006. Read the article. IN THE STATEHOUSES: UPDATES ON FOI LEGISLATION"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." --James Madison, speech in the Virginia Convention, June 16, 1788 BILL TO OPEN AUTOPSY REPORTS: A bill that would allow public officials to make autopsy information public has been introduced before the state Legislature.Introduced Wednesday, May 31, by Rep. Robert Valihura Jr., R-Wilmington, the proposed legislation would amend the state’s health records privacy act to exempt the records of deceased individuals. The legislation comes in the wake of a Delaware Supreme Court ruling in a case involving the death of Rehoboth Beach businessman Duane Lawson. Lawson’s body was discovered by firefighters who extinguished his burning car in the garage of the Henlopen Hotel in Rehoboth Beach. The medical examiner ruled the death was accidental, but the cause of Lawson’s death has never officially been released. As interpreted by the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, the Supreme Court unanimously found that the state’s health records privacy act prevents officials from releasing a cause of death in cases in which the Medical Examiner’s Office finds a death was accidental or natural. Read the article. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTSJAMAICAN OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT DEAD? ONE of the last vestiges of colonialism in Jamaica, the 95-year-old Official Secrets Act, which has left a legacy of secrecy in the Government service, will be repealed, according to Information Minister Colin Campbell.The issue was raised on Thursday by Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe at an Access to Information seminar hosted by the United States-based Carter Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Development and local stakeholders. According to Professor Munroe, four years after the Access to Information Act received the nod from Parliament, the Official Secrets Act of 1911 still remains on the books. "How can you have in one jurisdiction, a law which says you and I have a fundamental right to information and another law which says there is an obligation to hold official secrets? It makes no sense," he said. "(The) Official Secrets Act must be repealed now, not one day after the next meeting of the Parliament." The Information Minister explained that the Gordon Wells Report of 1994 had identified an inherent conflict with the Officials Secrets Act and the then proposed Access to Information Act. He said there was a culture of secrecy in the civil service and the Access to Information legislation is an attempt to create more openness in the public service. Read the article. AND ALSO IN THE CROSSHAIRS IN BANGLADESH: Leading journalists at a media conference yesterday demanded repeal of the Official Secrets Act and enactment of a new law ensuring freedom of the press and access to information. They also observed that journalists are often subject to torture and harassment due to lack of press freedom and access to information. A free media is essential for strengthening democracy and journalists should be aware of any attempt to seize power by forces not representing the people, they pointed out. The South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), Bangladesh chapter, organised the National Conference 2006 at Brac Centre Inn in the city. Speaking as the chief guest, former chief justice and chairman of Law Commission Mostafa Kamal underscored the need for freedom of journalists, instead of freedom of newspaper owners. He observed that the owners often do not allow journalists to write freely. Justice Kamal urged the newspaper owners not to be dependent on government advertisement. "If a newspaper depends on the government advertisement, it loses the moral right to criticise the government." Responding to the demands of journalists, he said that the law for press freedom and access to information in Bangladesh should be different from India and Pakistan as the situations are not the same. Justice Kamal said the law commission has recommended a comprehensive contempt of court law, but it would be ineffective if people become educated and conscious. He spoke against giving any definition of contempt of court as it depends on case-to-case basis and situation to situation. Eminent journalists Kuldip Nayar of India and Imtiaz Alam of Pakistan also spoke at the inaugural session of the conference chaired by Reazuddin Ahmed, president of SAFMA Bangladesh. Shawkat Mahmood, general secretary of the National Press Club, moderated the session. Read the article. FOI AT WORK: FOIA 101: A third-year journalism student at the University of Sheffield ended up with a front page splash in the Yorkshire Evening Post following her investigation into the items confiscated from inmates at Wakefield prison. Hannah Postles, 21, used the Freedom of Information Act to reveal the items inmates had smuggled into the prison were hardcore pornographic DVDs, mobile phones and collection of newspaper cuttings about prison staff. Postles’s article began as an assignment for a module on investigative journalism. She contacted the Leeds-based Evening Post news desk got reaction from the prison governor, the Home Office and local MPs. Read the article. 20 DAYS MEANS 20 DAYS IN NAZI REQUEST: The UK Government has been rapped by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas over the way it dealt with a request from the People newspaper for details of Nazi war criminals. People reporter David Brown tabled a series of questions to the Home Office in January under the Freedom of Information Act seeking details of suspected Nazi war criminals living in the UK. Brown’s investigation was prompted by the 60th anniversary commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz and VE day. Under the FOI Act Government departments are required to respond to requests within 20 days. But it took the Home Office two months to refuse Brown’s request on the grounds that it would take too long. Then, in June, Home Office minister Andy Burnham released the information in a parliamentary written answer when he revealed that up to several hundred Nazi war criminals could still be living in Britain. The Information Commission has now acknowledged that the Home Office acted in breach of the Act and warned that if it continues to fail to comply with requests in time, it will take enforcement action. Read the article. FOI OFFICE IS SECRETIVE? A secretive Whitehall department set up by the Government to handle sensitive and difficult requests under the new Freedom of Information Act is itself in breach of the new legislation, a parliamentary committee says. The so-called "clearing house" brought in by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, shortly before the new laws took force in January 2004 has refused to release information about its activities. Today, MPs on the Constitutional Affairs Committee, which has been reviewing the first year of the FoI Act, told the Government that it must comply with the "letter and sprit" of the law. The clearing house was asked by an academic interested in the workings of the legislation to release information about the number of cases it had dealt with. But he was told that such information was exempt under the Act because it could "prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs". Read the article. ITS IRAQ PLANS PUBLIC, UK GOVERNMENT THREATENS A CRACKDOWN: Plans for tougher official secrecy laws to prevent whistleblowers from revealing information about government policy have been drawn up by the home secretary, John Reid. He wants to stop members of the security and intelligence agencies, as well as other Whitehall officials with access to sensitive information, from claiming they acted in the public interest and were exposing wrongdoing or unlawful acts by the government. Ministers have been embarrassed by a spate of leaks revealing their private concerns about the legality of the US-led invasion of Iraq, including concerns allegedly expressed by Tony Blair about American tactics in the country. Read the article. 18 MONTHS A NEW RECORD FOR UK FOIA DELAY: The Home Office has just set a new record for tardiness in answering a Freedom of Information Act request — 18 months. The unlucky journalist on the receiving end of the department's delays was Sunday Telegraph home affairs correspondent Ben Leapman. The news value of the information he requested about the security lapses at Woodhill Prison — where Soham murderer Ian Huntley is caged — has now greatly reduced. And Leapman believes drastic changes need to be made to the FoI regime to give the act teeth. Leapman told Press Gazette: "I think the Home Office in this case — and others I have dealt with — is turning things down when there is no good reason for doing do. Read the article. THE 500 BEST: The Campaign for Freedom of Information has published summaries of 500 press stories based on disclosures during the first year of the FOI Act. They include disclosures under the UK and Scottish FOI laws, both of which came fully into force on 1 January 2005. The stories have been categorised by subject, newspaper and public authority making the disclosure and illustrate the wide range of information which has been released. Download from http://www.cfoi.org.uk. ON THE EDITORIAL PAGESThe Great Falls Tribune (Montana) on the National Parks Service’s new information policy: “Your bank statement. Your Social Security number. Your sex life.Pretty personal stuff. And you rightfully expect it to stay that way. In the climate of identity theft and high-tech scams, most of us are increasingly protective of personal information. But let's say you crash your car into the courthouse. Or you take a swan dive off a city water tower. You can pretty much expect your name to hit the paper. A public accident in a public place is of public interest. And the people involved are part of that news. Law enforcement and media generally work cooperatively in releasing victims' names in a timely fashion. But that's changing at Glacier National Park. A number of national parks are clamping down on information about people who die or are injured. For reasons that remain fuzzy, Glacier officials are taking an even harder line. They say they won't release the name, age or hometown of anyone hurt or killed in the park. If you drown in Flathead Lake, it's public information. If you drown in Lake McDonald, it's "private." That's not right. And it's not the case in all parks...” Read the editorial. Former President Jimmy Carter on FOIA’s 40th: “The U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) turns 40 tomorrow, the day we celebrate our independence. But this anniversary will not be a day of celebration for the right to information in our country. Our government leaders have become increasingly obsessed with secrecy. Obstructionist policies and deficient practices have ensured that many important public documents and official actions remain hidden from our view...” Read the editorial. The Washington Examiner on the $1 million federal FOIA “study”: “A measly $1 million is insignificant in a $2.5 trillion annual federal budget. But the fact the Pentagon is paying a Texas law professor $1 million to find new ways to restrict public access to sensitive government information and data is quite significant. Nothing wrong with the idea of protecting information essential to national security, but it’s far from clear that this grant actually has anything to do with such a worthwhile purpose. If it did, somebody other than Professor Jeffrey Addicott would likely have been the grant recipient. That is not to suggest the professor is anything but a bright guy, because he clearly is highly intelligent and a patriotic public servant. The problem is he’s likely not the right guy for this job, and we wonder why anybody thinks this job needs doing in the first place...” Subscribing to The ADVOCATE LISTSERVTo subscribe:
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