When Florida media groups are concerned about freedom of the press and open government, they turn to the First Amendment Foundation for help.
Pete Weitzel, former senior editor of the Miami Herald, founded the non-profit 30 years ago.
The foundation is funded through contributions. It provides training, legal aid, and the annual Government in the Sunshine Manual as a guide to Florida’s open meetings and public-records laws.
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To mark Sunshine Week, March 16-22, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press explains how journalists can use information access laws to develop stories in the public interest. This post is written by Emily Grannis, the Jack Nelson FOI Legal Fellow at the RCFP.
Freedom of information laws are invaluable resources to reporters covering any beat. The laws provide access to a wide range of government documents, from budgets to emails, and contracts to crime reports.
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Read More… from How to use FOIA laws to find stories, deepen sourcing
As Westchester County considers filing a second lawsuit against the federal government over the loss of millions in community development grants, the administration of County Executive Rob Astorino is refusing to disclose the cost of its lengthy legal fights over the county's compliance with a 2009 fair housing settlement.
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Read More… from Westchester won’t divulge cost of legal fight vs. HUD
The people's right to know is, like "the spirit of scientific inquiry," a "search for the truth," wrote Herbert Brucker in his 1949 groundbreaking book "Freedom of Information."
The highly regarded Hartford Courant editor and journalism educator has been credited with coining the phrase "freedom of information." Every state now has freedom of information statutes.
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Read More… from Op-Ed: More Government Power To Keep Truth Under Wraps
The Associated Press' executive editor called on governments around the world to support an independent press, warning Monday that efforts to silence the media through intimidation and violence are "in effect an attack on a nation's people."
Kathleen Carroll said the media can be a proxy for questions and concerns by citizens and the role of independent journalists is to ask questions on behalf of the people and bear witness.
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Read More… from AP chief urges governments to support free press
The Unites States Navy inadvertently sent a memo to a local NBC News reporter this week detailing how it intended to try and deter requests he had filed under the Freedom Of Information Act.
Scott MacFarlane, a reporter for NBC 4 in Washington, D.C., tweeted out a screenshot of a portion of the memo on Tuesday morning, where the name of Robin Patterson, the Navy's FOIA Public Liaison is visible. The Navy FOIA office confirmed that MacFarlane had made the FOIA requests mentioned in the memo.
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Read More… from Navy mistakenly sends FOIA plans to reporter its seeking to deter
From azcentral.com: WASHINGTON — Dozens of leading news organizations are protesting to the White House against restrictions that sometimes keep journalists from taking pictures and video of President Barack Obama performing official duties. At the same time, two press groups urged their members to stop using official photos and video handed out by the White House, dismissing them as little more than “government propaganda.”
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Read More… from News media protest White House press access limits
From The Washington Post: WASHINGTON — A Washington newspaper has asked a federal judge to force the Coast Guard to return any documents and copies of records it seized from a reporter while searching her home last summer as part of a gun investigation involving her husband.
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Read More… from Newspaper goes to fed court over reporter’s notes
From NFOIC: COLUMBIA, Mo – Do you know which industries spend the most to influence politics in your state?
If not, or even if you think you have an idea, you might be in interested in a report by Mother Jones staffers Alex Jones and Tasneem Raja. Using data on political contributions during the 2012 election cycle that was compiled by Followthemoney.org, the pair produced an interesting report and state-by-state map.
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