National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

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Legislator plans another try at making Colorado judicial branch subject to CORA

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A Republican state lawmaker said she will try again during the 2017 legislative session to make Colorado’s judicial branch subject to the state’s open-records law.

“It’s just so interesting that one branch of government thinks they should be held to a different standard,” Rep. Polly Lawrence of Douglas County told the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. “We don’t let the executive branch write their own rules.”

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Wyoming court: OK to charge for viewing electronic records

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The Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled against the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in a public records dispute with Laramie County School District 1.

In a 3-2 decision issued Wednesday, the state’s highest court ruled that government agencies are allowed to charge people to look at electronic public records. The fee should be a reasonable charge for the cost of producing a copy of the record, the majority of the justices said.

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Iowa law vague on police video footage as open records, officials say

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When police cameras roll, they can capture captivating and informative images.  But not all of those videos are being released for public consumption.

In part because of haziness in Iowa law, disputes have arisen over when police dashboard and body camera footage should be made public and when it can be withheld by law enforcement.

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First Amendment Coalition honors Ferndale Enterprise publisher

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The First Amendment Coalition awarded Ferndale Enterprise publisher/editor Caroline Titus the 2016 Free Speech & Open Government Award on Thursday during the California Press Foundation’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

“I am extremely proud to be honored by such a prestigious organization. I’m also honored to represent the 138-year-old Ferndale Enterprise and our readers who support our efforts to stand up for the First Amendment and open and transparent government,” she said in an email.

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IN: Text messages conducting official business are public record even if sent on private phone

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Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke H. Britt sent a letter to the City of South Bend's legal department advising that any public business conducted in writing, irrespective of medium, is considered public record.  The department inquired for Britt's advice clarifying Indiana's Access to Public Records Act as it pertains to text messages.

The entirety of the letter can be found here.

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TCOG encourages citizens to comment on draft model public records policy

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The Office of Open Records Counsel is giving the public a chance to review and comment on a draft of a statewide model public records policy.

A new law requires all government entities in Tennessee to adopt a public records policy by July 1, 2017. [T.C.A. §10-7-503 (g)]. The law also requires the Office of Open Records Counsel, a state agency housed in the State Comptroller’s Office, to develop a model best practices and public records policy that can be used by the government entities.

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PA: Open-records law continues to draw proposals for revision

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It’s been nearly a decade since state lawmakers completely rewrote the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, making fundamental changes to what had widely been considered among the nation’s weakest legislation on access to government records.

The revised law has made a vast amount of information available to the public, substantially increased the workload for state courts and produced a number of proposals to amend it.

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Judge rules against Center for Public Integrity in cybersecurity lawsuit

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A U.S. District Court Judge has denied the Center for Public Integrity’s request for access to a taxpayer-funded study about cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the Federal Election Commission.

The court’s decision comes more than 13 months after the Center for Public Integrity sued the FEC for access to the security study, which the FEC commissioned following a Center investigation revealing how Chinese hackers infiltrated the FEC’s computer systems.

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Campus Press vs. Colleges: Kentucky Suit Highlights Free-Speech Fight

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The confidential informant had an explosive tip for the University of Kentucky’s campus newspaper: An associate professor of entomology had been accused of groping students, and the college, after an investigation, had permitted him to leave quietly.

On the trail of a hot story, the paper, The Kentucky Kernel, requested files from the university. Officials turned over some documents, but they contained few details.

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