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Privatization:Its Impact on Public Record AccessBy Harry HammittVolume 2, Number 1 Reinstituting the FOI Reports service on behalf of the NFOICThe document is in two formats: a Microsoft Word file and Adobe Acrobat file (236kb). PREFACE TO FOI REPORT ON PRIVATIZATION With the publication of Privatization: Its Impact on Public Record Access by Harry Hammitt, the National Freedom of Information Coalition is honored to announce the resumption of the FOI Reports, the last of which was written by Penny Loeb in June 1985. We are proud to add Harry’s discerning analysis to the proud tradition of FOI publications. In this, the first of a series of working papers initiated by the NFOIC, Harry examines how state legislatures and the courts have dealt with keeping public information accessible as privatization has threatened to change the freedom of information landscape. From 1958 to 1985, the Freedom of Information Center published the topical studies. The first publication was authored by Judge A.P. Murrah and was the text of a speech he delivered before the Oklahoma Press Association in 1958. Paul Fisher, professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism and former director of the FOI Center, started the FOI Report series. Other early contributors included such FOI stalwarts as John E. Moss, J. Russell Wiggins, Joseph Costas, Basil Walters, Harold L. Cross, Clark Mollenhoff, Samuel J. Archibald, and Jacob Scher. Scher also was responsible for introducing the National Editorial Association Freedom of Information News Digest to Missouri. The NEA, now the National Newspaper Association, has recently become our Missouri neighbor. While a graduate student in journalism, Harry wrote FOI Report No. 367, Advertising Pressures on Media. Harry has promised to provide NFOIC members with more informative pieces on timely topics affecting access. For more publications by Harry Hammitt, see http://www.accessreports.com/. Kathleen Edwards |
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