|
|
|
The FOI ADVOCATEOctober 23, 2006 Vol. 5, No. 2The 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. FOI AT WORK: PROPAGANDA AS FREELANCE WORK: At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from El Nuevo Herald, received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years. Those who were paid the most were veteran reporters and a freelance contributor for El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the corporate parent of The Miami Herald. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years.Alfonso and Cancio were dismissed after The Miami Herald questioned editors at El Nuevo Herald about the payments. Connor's freelance relationship with the newspaper also was severed. Alfonso and Cancio declined to comment. Connor was unavailable for comment. Jesús Díaz Jr., president of the Miami Herald Media Co. and publisher of both newspapers, expressed disappointment, saying the payments violated a "sacred trust" between journalists and the public. "Even the appearance that your objectivity or integrity might have been impaired is something we can't condone, not in our business," Díaz said. ``I personally don't believe that integrity and objectivity can be assured if any of our reporters receive monetary compensation from any entity that he or she may cover or have covered, but particularly if it's a government agency." Other journalists receiving payments from the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and TV Martí, included: Diario Las Americas opinion page editor Helen Aguirre Ferre and reporter/columnist Ariel Remos; Channel 41 news director Miguel Cossio; and syndicated columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner, whose opinions appear in the pages of El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald. Radio and TV Martí are U.S. government programs created to promote democracy and freedom in Cuba. Their programming cannot be broadcast within the United States because of anti-propaganda laws. Radio and TV Martí have received $37 million this year. The payments to journalists were discovered in documents recently obtained by The Miami Herald as a result of a federal Freedom of Information Request filed on Aug. 15. HUGE INTERNATIONAL RULING ON ACCESS: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights broke new ground in declaring that all people have a general right of access to government-held information, the Open Society Justice Initiative said Oct. 10. The Court's pioneering ruling in the case Marcel Claude Reyes and Others v. Chile marks the first time an international tribunal has confirmed the existence of a full right of access to information held by government and other public bodies. In Reyes, the Court was interpreting Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, as it applied to government denial of requests for information."This is an historic judgment," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Justice Initiative. "The court has made it clear that access to information is essential to democratic participation and freedom of expression." The Justice Initiative joined with four other groups in filing a "friend of the court" brief in support of Claude Reyes, who filed a request with the Chilean government in 1998, seeking information on a massive logging project. (The brief is available at here.) In its decision, released yesterday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights referred specifically to a new Justice Initiative publication, Transparency & Silence (available here), which compares freedom of information laws and practices in 14 countries, including Chile. In the ruling, the court also established that countries must train public officials on procedures for releasing information and that they must be guided by the principle of "maximum disclosure," meaning that, with few exceptions, all government-held information must be made accessible. "This ruling is about more than just one case in one country," said Darian Pavli, the Justice Initiative's legal officer for freedom of information and expression. "It establishes a precedent that other courts and other countries should now follow." 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. A KEY GUANTANAMO RULING: The Department of Defense must release documents containing the identities of detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were transferred or released or who suffered mistreatment by their handlers or other detainees, a judge ruled Wednesday. In ruling in a case brought by The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff said the government cannot keep the names secret on the grounds that it protects the privacy of detainees."The public interest in disclosing government malfeasance is well-established," the judge wrote in saying that the AP had demonstrated the need for the information. David A. Schulz, who argued the case for the AP, called the judge's decision "a resounding victory for the public's right to know." He said the identities of between 50 and 100 detainees who were ordered to be transferred or released from Guantanamo Bay after Jan. 1, 2005, will allow reporters to attempt to verify whether the government's account of events is accurate. "The Department of Defense has made it virtually impossible for anyone to check the accuracy or thoroughness of what is going on in Guantanamo," Schulz said. "The public is supposed to be able to determine these things for itself." Schulz said the judge also ordered the government to turn over the identities in eight files reporting investigations of allegations of abuse of detainees by military personnel and fewer than a dozen probes of abuse of detainees by other detainees. The government will have two months to decide whether to appeal the ruling. It had no immediate comment Wednesday, spokeswoman Lauren McDonough said. GENERAL FOIA NEWSFOI AT WORK: CLIMATE CONTROL AT THE WHITE HOUSE: In February, there were several press reports about the Bush administration exercising message control on the subject of climate change. The New Republic cited numerous instances in which top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientists at the National Hurricane Center sought to downplay links between more-intense hurricanes and global warming. NOAA scientist Thomas Knutson told the Wall Street Journal he'd been barred from speaking to CNBC because his research suggested just such a link. At the time, Bush administration officials denied that they did any micromanaging of media requests for interviews. But a large batch of e-mails obtained by Salon through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the White House was, in fact, controlling access to scientists and vetting reporters.FOI AT WORK: JOHN LENNON (R.I.P.), SECURITY THREAT: We all know that a key to preventing future terrorist attacks is sharing intelligence with foreign governments. When Justice Department attorneys urge courts not to release national security information provided by a foreign government under a Freedom of Information Act suit, they argue that the courts should defer to the experts in the Department of Homeland Security and the White House. But what if such intelligence isn't about today's terrorist threats? What if it's about the antiwar activities of a British rock star during the Vietnam War?That's precisely what's at issue in a Freedom of Information Act suit pending before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case of John Lennon's FBI files illustrates the federal government's obsession with secrecy, which it justifies with appeals to national security. Lennon's story, told in the documentary "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," opening this week in Los Angeles, revolves around his plans to help register young people to vote in the 1972 presidential election, when President Nixon was running for reelection and the war in Vietnam was the issue of the day. Lennon wanted to organize a national concert tour that would combine rock music with antiwar protests and voter registration. Nixon found out about the plan, and the White House began deportation proceedings against Lennon. It worked: Lennon never did the tour, and Nixon was reelected. Along the way, the FBI spied on and harassed Lennon — and kept detailed files of its work. The bulk of them were released in 1997 under the Freedom of Information Act after 15 years of litigation. I was the plaintiff. THE SOVIETS HAD IT, NOW IT’S SECRET: The Bush administration has begun designating as secret some information that the government long provided even to its enemy the former Soviet Union: the numbers of strategic weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the Cold War. The Pentagon and the Department of Energy are treating as national security secrets the historical totals of Minuteman, Titan II and other missiles, blacking out the information on previously public documents, according to a new report by the National Security Archive. The archive is a nonprofit research library housed at George Washington University."It would be difficult to find more dramatic examples of unjustifiable secrecy than these decisions to classify the numbers of U.S. strategic weapons," wrote William Burr, a senior analyst at the archive who compiled the report. " . . . The Pentagon is now trying to keep secret numbers of strategic weapons that have never been classified before." The report comes at a time when the Bush administration's penchant for government secrecy has troubled researchers and bred controversy over agency efforts to withhold even seemingly innocuous information. The National Archives was embroiled in scandal during the spring when it was disclosed that the agency had for years kept secret a reclassification program under which the CIA, the Air Force and other agencies removed thousands of records from public shelves. INFORMATION CONTROL/PROPAGANDA/ETC.: The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says. The report, written in 2004, came to light during the Senate confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. received a copy of the report “indirectly from someone within the FCC who believed the information should be made public,” according to Boxer spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz. Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed. “The whole project was just stopped -- end of discussion,” he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC’s Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said. At that time, the agency pointed to evidence that “commonly owned television stations are more likely to carry local news than other stations.” When considering whether to loosen rules on media ownership, the agency is required to examine the impact on localism, competition and diversity. The FCC generally defines localism as the level of responsiveness of a station to the needs of its community. The 2003 action sparked a backlash among the public and within Congress. In June 2004, a federal appeals court rejected the agency’s reasoning on most of the rules and ordered it to try again. The debate has since been reopened, and the FCC has scheduled a public hearing on the matter in Los Angeles on Oct. 3. The report was begun after then-Chairman Michael Powell ordered the creation of a task force to study localism in broadcasting in August of 2003. Powell stepped down from the commission and was replaced by Martin in March 2005. Powell did not return a call seeking comment... FOI AT WORK: CDC ADMINS GET BIG BONUSES: Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who are getting the most frequent bonuses are not scientists, but instead accountants, budget analysts, computer experts and other administrative managers, according to a report in Sunday's editions of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 72 CDC employees who received five or more awards of at least $2,500 from 2000 through July 21, primarily work in non-science jobs, according to the newspaper's analysis of agency data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.Some employees got $30,000, $50,000 and, in one case, more than $140,000 in cumulative bonuses during the period, the paper reported. The CDC has about 9,000 employees, and 4,200 of them are considered scientific staff. In response to the newspaper's findings, CDC officials said the agency is examining its system of awarding employees. "We want to make sure that the system we have in place is equitable and that it rewards everyone, if in fact they are eligible for the award and if in fact they're deserving of it," spokesman Tom Skinner said. Skinner and other CDC officials said several factors may explain the frequent, large awards skewed in favor of financial staff and administrative managers, not the agency's core scientific staff. One reason may be that not all front-line managers may be aware of or regularly use the awards. Another is that all federal agencies are being pushed to improve budget systems, technology and the like. There hasn't been a parallel push on the scientific side, said Glen Nowak, another CDC spokesman. JUDGE ORDERS CHENEY LOGS OPENED: A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney's office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election season debate over lobbyists' White House access. The Washington Post asked for two years of White House visitor logs in June but the Secret Service refused to process the request. Government attorneys called it "a fishing expedition into the most sensitive details of the vice presidency."U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled Wednesday that, by the end of next week, the Secret Service must produce the records or at least identity them and justify why they are being withheld. The newspaper sought logs for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman and other top aides and advisers. The Secret Service had no comment on the ruling Thursday. In court documents, government attorneys said releasing the documents would infringe on Cheney's ability to seek advice. "This case is about protecting the effective functioning of the vice presidency under the Constitution," attorneys wrote. A lawsuit over similar records revealed last month that Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, key figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House. A PRIVATE NOTEBOOK? Former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card sought to circumvent the Presidential Records Act -- which has governed the ownership of presidential and vice presidential records since President Nixon's shootout over the White House tapes -- by keeping a secret record of top government jobs paired with running lists of possible replacements. Card, who left the White House last spring, described his "hit-by-a-bus" workbook to journalist Bob Woodward. He said he kept a roster of qualified candidates in a blue spiral notebook that he purchased himself, "so it wouldn't be considered a government document or presidential record that might someday be opened to history," according to Woodward's latest book, State of Denial. Although Card imagined his notebook would be for his eyes only, he revealed its existence to Woodward, adding that his list of possible replacements for controversial Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ran to 11 names.Experts in the legalities and mechanics of maintaining presidential records consulted by National Journal challenged Card's interpretation. Whether Card used a dime-store notebook or cocktail napkins, or believed his notebook was personal rather than government property, such qualifiers were irrelevant to the document's definition as a presidential record that should be preserved and archived for historical purposes. "In this case, it was a conscious effort to try to get around the statute," said Scott Nelson, senior attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group. The idea that a notebook purchased privately might serve as a shield from the law "is just ridiculous," Nelson added, because of Card's own description of how he intended to use his personnel lists. "The definition of presidential records includes documents created by members of the president's immediate staff for the purposes of carrying out their official duties." Although interpretations such as Card's have never been tested in court and no independent policing exists in real time, the general legal guidance offered to White House staffers at the start of each administration (including by then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales early in 2001) is that if a document is drafted for use by the government -- whether actually used or not -- it would still be a presidential record based on its intended use. 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 HAVE YOU ASKED YOUR CANDIDATE ABOUT OPEN GOVERNMENT? Journalists should not forget the issues of secrecy of records and meetings as they cover candidates in the next month. The issues aren't just the federal questions that make national headlines; they are state and local. This week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Iowa Newspaper Association gave examples of ways journalists can go about shining some light on how candidates view open government. "Secrecy as a state issue: You won't hear Republican state legislative candidates talk about it, but if the GOP retains control of the House and Senate in November, look for a renewed effort to gut Georgia's sunshine laws in the name of economic development," warns Mike King of the Journal-Constitution, noting a recent legislative battle. "The measure, among other things, would have allowed unelected boards to provide incentives for companies to build incinerators, waste disposal sites or other job-creating businesses without having to disclose them publicly until after the deal had been negotiated."When it comes to secrecy as a local issue in Georgia, King writes about a school board in Gwinnett County that carries the unspoken belief of "If voters don't like what they do they can say so in the next election." However, voters will encounter two candidates running unopposed in next month's election for two board seats. King describes a kind of secrecy that might occur in other growing school districts: "Gwinnett's school board, for instance, envelops the whole land-buying process in total secrecy — no word of a school's location or land price is disclosed until the deal is closed." The latest Iowa Newspaper Association Bulletin urges reporters to ask candidates about the state and local Freedom of Information Acts: "In the coming weeks, candidates for governor and for other state and local offices will be visiting with citizens and media outlets, seeking support. These visits are the perfect opportunity to prod candidates to publicly acknowledge the importance of open government." Examples of secrecy mentioned in this article including the Des Moines School Board holding much of the hiring process for a new superintendent in secrecy, and people having to pay $15 an hour to have the governor's records screened first before they could gain access to them. (Article not available online.) From the University of Kentucky and Atlanta Journal-Constitution TEXAS AG SAYS LAW ‘UNDER ATTACK’: The Texas Open Meetings Act is under assault in federal court, Attorney General Greg Abbott warned, but he vowed to fight for the public's right to know what its government is doing. "Not on my watch as attorney general are we going to have the open meetings law of the state of Texas struck down," Abbott said at the annual meeting of The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas on Friday, prompting applause.Abbott listed a number of recent victories under the Texas Public Information Act, even as he sounded the alarm on the legal challenge to the state's law protecting public access to governmental gatherings. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn earlier told the open government group that more needs to be done to make records available at the federal level, including passage of legislation he's sponsoring that is pending in Congress. Former and current City Council members in Alpine are suing in federal court, claiming that the state open meetings law violates their First Amendment rights to free speech. They are represented by high-profile Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin in the case presided over by U.S. District Judge Robert Junell, a former Democratic state lawmaker appointed by President Bush. Abbott called a "bedrock principle" that of people needing access to government meetings in order to hold elected officials accountable. MISSISSIPPI PAPER WINS FEES IN RECORDS SUIT: Hinds County Chancellor Denise Owens has ordered the city of Jackson to pay nearly $13,000 in fees to cover more than half of The Clarion-Ledger's legal costs in its open records lawsuit. "It is our hope that this finally settles the public records issue with the city. The court system has more pressing matters than to hear cases already firmly established by law," Clarion-Ledger executive editor Ronnie Agnew said Tuesday.Jackson Mayor Frank Melton vowed to fight what he called "irrelevant" records requests recently made by the newspaper. "Everything we send in that's a positive for the city, it never gets in print. Yet, our employees have wasted their time putting all this stuff together," Melton said. "It's harassment. There's no question about it." Melton offered no specifics. Clarion-Ledger attorney Leonard Van Slyke said he hopes the agreement ends months of legal wrangling. The newspaper filed a lawsuit in May seeking access to payroll records, crime statistics and other records after repeated attempts to gain access to the records were denied. STUDENT NEWSPAPER OPENS INTERVIEWS: A Brookings judge Wednesday ruled in favor of South Dakota State University's student newspaper, which had gone to court so it could report on interviews with finalists for the school president. The South Dakota Board of Regents called an emergency meeting Wednesday night. Executive Director Tad Perry said only litigation was discussed in closed session and the board never went into an open session.Jeremy Fugleberg, editor of the student-run Collegian newspaper, obtained an order that prevents the regents from keeping student journalists out of the interviews. Circuit Judge Rodney Steele issued the order after a telephone conference Wednesday afternoon. "It overturns about 35 years of how we've done things," regents President Harvey Jewett said. Jewett and Perry said the regents intend to comply with the judge's ruling. Perry noted the regents went beyond the judge's ruling to include all media in the interview process. "We hope we won't lose any candidates as a result of it," Jewett said. Fugleberg was elated. "This is everything that we'd asked for," he said. "The judge was incredibly fair. He listened very clearly to both sides. He made a decision based on the law." IOWA PAPER SUES OVER MEETINGS: The Des Moines Register filed a lawsuit against the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium, claiming that the board of directors repeatedly violated the state’s open-meetings law. In the lawsuit, the Register asks that a Polk County District Court judge listen to tape recordings of five closed-door meetings of the CIETC board of directors, held between April 7 and Sept 13. If the court determines that the meetings were illegally closed, the tapes will then become public record.The state open-meeting law says that a board may close its doors to the public if it is discussing pending litigation or personnel matters. Since the board faced no pending litigation during this period, the newspaper claims, these meetings were conducted illegally. The CIETC has been facing allegations of mismanagement since the state auditor announced that it believes the board misspent almost $1.6 million for employee compensation. Most of that money is said to have come from the federal government, and may need to be repaid Iowa taxpayers. “We believe we’ve complied with the law in every respect -- both the letter and the spirit of the law,” CIETC attorney Jonathan Wilson told the Register. The CIETC board claims that three of the five meetings cited in the Register lawsuit were held for issues on personnel and although they were not currently involved in litigation, the allegations of mismanagement warranted closed-door meetings. MERC NEWS WINS FOI AWARD: The California First Amendment Coalition has recognized the Mercury News for its work in pushing for greater openness in San Jose city government. The paper received the coalition's Beacon Award at a ceremony Saturday at the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.In editorials in the past year, the paper has repeatedly called for San Jose city officials to adopt an open government ordinance, the coalition said. The city council agreed to create a community task force that will draft a so-called sunshine ordinance for the city by the end of the year. The coalition referred to the newspaper's work and its results as "an example of civic journalism at its finest." The efforts of the paper came at a time when one council member resigned after accepting expensive gifts, and Mayor Ron Gonzales and top aide Joe Guerra were indicted on charges that include fraud and bribery in awarding a city contract. Other recipients of the Beacon Award -- given to those who "exemplify the spirit of the First Amendment" -- include:
OHIO DENIES ACCESS TO FOSTER PARENT LIST: The state has denied a newspaper's public-records request for the names and addresses of every licensed foster parent in Ohio, saying release of the information would be illegal and could jeopardize children. Only those who place foster children in homes need access to such information, said Barbara Riley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The Cincinnati Enquirer had asked for the records as part of its coverage of foster parents charged with murder in the death of a 3-year-old boy in their care. Prosecutors say Liz and David Carroll Jr. left the boy for two days in a closet, where he died. David Carroll is accused of burning the boy's body.Ohio has almost 11,000 foster parents. The records requested by the newspaper contain no information about foster children, the Enquirer reported Oct. 3. But making the list of foster parents public could allow threatened foster children to be located, Riley said. The department based its decision on a state adoptions law and an Ohio Supreme Court case prohibiting the release of information about children enrolled at a Columbus swimming pool. The Enquirer's attorney said those arguments were irrelevant. "The request is not for any information about kids," John Greiner said. "It's certainly not about adoptive situations. To the extent foster parents ultimately may adopt, you wouldn't know that from the list of foster caregivers." From the First Amendment Center. HUGE RECORDS TAB IN WASHINGTON CASE: The city of Spokane is paying $299,000 and has issued an apology to settle two lawsuits over the withholding of documents involving the contentious financing of the River Park Square Parking garage. The out-of-court settlement with Camas Magazine, publishers Judy Laddon and Larry Shook and former Senior Editor Tim Connor was approved 6 to 1 on Oct. 2 by the City Council. The lone no vote was cast by Brad Stark, who said the settlement would divert money that should go to police, fire and other services."The apology really sealed the deal," Connor said. Of the settlement, $152,000 covers potential penalties for which the city was being sued under the state’s public-records act and the remaining $147,000 would go to pay the lawyers who brought the case, including the Center for Justice. Breean Beggs, a lawyer with the center, said the amount is believed to be the largest public records settlement in the history of the law, which dates back more than 30 years. From the First Amendment Center. WISCONSIN COURT ORDERS WARDEN’S FILE OPEN: A state appeals court ordered the Department of Natural Resources on Thursday to turn over disciplinary records of a warden in a victory for open records advocates. The District 4 Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Lakeland Times newspaper of Minocqua, which sued to obtain documents detailing a misconduct investigation into conservation warden Thomas Kroeplin.The records do not fall under any exemptions to the state's open records law, the court said, and "public interest in disclosing the Kroeplin misconduct investigation and disciplinary records ...outweighs the public interest in nondisclosure." The records detail an investigation into whether Kroeplin broke DNR rules when he asked a police dispatcher to find out who owned a car parked at the home of his nephew's ex-girlfriend. The nephew, who had tried to obtain the information six minutes earlier, was later arrested for allegedly planting drugs in the car. WISCONSIN COURT SAYS OPEN NAMES IN LABOR CONTRACTS: Wisconsin’s open-records law trumps state worker union contracts that prevent employees’ names from being released, a judge ruled late last week. The Oct. 13 decision came in a lawsuit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper filed against the state Department of Administration last year. The newspaper wanted the names of state workers who had lost their state car driving privileges.The agency refused to turn them over, citing labor contracts that bar the release of employee names and other identifying information. The contracts with the Wisconsin State Employees Union, Wisconsin Science Professionals and the Wisconsin Professional Employees Council had the force of law since the Legislature approved them, the agency argued. But Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust disagreed, saying the contracts didn’t create an exception to the state’s open-records laws. Anonymity isn’t a condition of employment for workers covered by the contracts, Foust said. The decision came on the heels of a state appeals court ruling earlier last week that found the state Department of Natural Resources must give a warden’s disciplinary records to the Lakeland Times of Minocqua. The state used the same argument — that contracts protected those records — and lost. From the First Amendment Center. NEW FOI AUDIT IN COLORADO: DENVER (AP) -- Want to know what your local planning commission has been up to? It's easy and free in many places, but be prepared to go through the city attorney's office to get meeting minutes if you happen to live in, say, Sterling. Curious about how your favorite restaurant did in its last health inspection? In some Colorado counties, just go online and it's all laid out free of charge. Elsewhere, be prepared to fill out a formal request, pay for copies and face a few questions from health department employees. How about e-mail messages sent between a school superintendent and school board members? Be ready for even more suspicion or even rude treatment. Be patient, too: Many districts send such requests through their staff attorney who will want to know what the information will be used for. Colorado's public records law is fairly simple. With some exceptions for personnel or proprietary commercial information, the public is entitled to see any record -- on paper or otherwise -- made, maintained or kept by any public entity for use in carrying out its duties or involving the receipt or spending of public money. Yet the way Colorado local government agencies handle public records requests varies sharply, according to a statewide survey conducted by 23 newspaper members of The Associated Press and Colorado Press Association over the summer. The results show that obtaining records can be an intimidating and disheartening process for members of the public, said Ed Otte, executive director of the CPA. 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 A WISH LIST IN DELAWARE: There is a lengthy list of items that Gemma Buckley, president of the government watchdog group Common Cause, would change about Delaware’s Freedom Of Information Act. For starters, she thinks language in the legislation, which guides open meetings and public records, is ambiguous. What constitutes a quorum isn’t always clear, and the act doesn’t address how the Internet has changed the availability of information.And there’s that matter of the General Assembly’s exemption from the law. "Oh, I could go on," she said. Buckley shared her views tonight during a panel discussion on what needs to change about Delaware’s FOIA. The panel, convened by the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred, a civic umbrella group, also featured state Attorney General Carl C. Danberg, State Sen. Karen E. Peterson, D-Stanton; state Sen. Charles Copeland, R-West Farm; state Rep. Robert J. Valihura Jr., R-Laurel Ridge; and Ron Williams, editorial columnist with The News Journal. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTSNEW GLOBAL FOI SURVEY: Privacy International today released a comprehensive survey provides a comprehensive review of Freedom of Information Laws and practices in nearly 70 countries around the world. Titled "Freedom of Information Around the World 2006 Global Survey of Access to Government Information Laws, the survey draws attention to the growing movement around the world to adopt FOI laws. In just the past two years, over a dozen countries have adopted new laws and decrees, while dozens more are considering proposals. Important international treaties such as the UN Convention Against Corruption have also gone into force. These laws are being used to fight corruption, make government bodies accountable and promote social and human rights.Unfortunately, the survey also highlights that many problems still exist such as poorly drafted laws, lax implementation and an ongoing culture of secrecy in many countries. There are also dangers in backsliding such as in Ireland where the imposition of onerous fees has significantly reduced use of the law and in the United Kingdom where a similar proposal is being considered. New laws promoting secrecy in the global war on terror have also undercut access. The report is being released just prior to the Annual International Right to Know Day on 28 September. Advocates in dozens of countries will be holding events celebrating the day. The survey is available here. CANADIAN AUDIT RELEASED: In spite of increased calls for accountability and governments' commitments to improve transparency, the Canadian Newspaper Association (CNA) has found that most Canadian governments continue to be unacceptably lax in fulfilling legislative obligations to uphold freedom of information laws. Published in newspapers across Canada today, the CNA's second National Freedom of Information Audit, which tested access to information systems in 10 Canadian provinces, shows that Canadians are likely to face unreasonable barriers in obtaining basic, uncontroversial information that should be readily available. Out of more than a hundred information requests submitted by reporters from 39 newspapers and the Canadian Press news agency, the information requested was denied or provided only in part in nearly one third (31%)."Freedom of information is a cornerstone of democracy," said Anne Kothawala, President and CEO of the CNA. "It allows not just journalists but also business, labour and advocacy groups, as well as ordinary citizens, to find out what elected officials are doing with their tax dollars and to hold them to account. When governments conceal or deny essential information, they effectively suppress a fundamental right - the right to know." The audit, conducted last spring but held for release at the start of Right to Know Week, sought answers to questions of general interest, such as municipal spending on herbicides and pesticides, bonuses paid to local hospital executives, crime statistics and information about federal preparations in the event of pandemics. Reporters acting as ordinary citizens, but without concealing their identities as journalists, often faced weeks of delays in obtaining responses to straightforward questions - if their queries were answered at all. COMPARATIVE FOI STUDY FINDS THE NEWER THE DEMOCRACY...: A comparative study on access to information in 14 countries finds that transitional democracies outperformed established ones in providing information about government activities. Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia, Mexico, and Peru did better in answering citizens' requests for information than France and Spain. The book, Transparency and Silence, published today by the Open Society Justice Initiative and available online at www.justiceinitiative.org, documents how various countries did—or did not—honor the right of access to information.In analyzing over 1,900 requests for information filed in 14 countries, Transparency & Silence finds that countries with access to information laws performed better than those with no law or with administrative provisions instead of a law. "Access to information laws have been key tools of democratic reform in Eastern Europe," said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative. "This week's official endorsement of EU membership for Bulgaria and Romania—two countries that performed well in our survey, despite being among the world's most closed societies until 1989—underscores the importance of transparency in consolidating the rule of law." Subscribing to The ADVOCATE LISTSERVTo subscribe:
To unsubscribe:
Note: LISTSERV will automatically pull your e-mail address out of the message; you don't need to include it. You must always send messages to the list from the original e-mail account you used to subscribe. NFOIC Staff
|
|