Sunlight on social media: Government officials’ posts should be public records
A new decision from Pennsylvania unnecessarily complicates the public’s right to know about government business conducted on social media
Government is at its most innovative when ducking transparency
Agencies are increasingly emboldened to preempt records requests with closure rules
It’s time for open records laws to promote transparency
Agencies misuse exemptions to cause delay and expense.
In a brewing First Amendment fight, California’s Attorney General threatens journalists for possessing a public records document
Reporters obtained a list of police convictions through a public records request. California’s Attorney General, claiming its mere possession is a misdemeanor crime, is threatening them with legal action.
How Trump’s government shutdown ground transparency to a halt
During Trump’s 35 day partial government shutdown—the longest in history—FOIA requests and FOIA litigation ground to a halt.
How corporations suppress disclosure of public records about themselves
Powerful corporations are increasingly deploying a diversity of tactics to subvert public records laws and prevent the disclosure of newsworthy documents about themselves.
FOIA The Dead, the transparency site public figures are dying to get into
FOIA The Dead, a transparency project that automates public records requests of notable deceased individuals and publishes the results, is relaunching today as a special project of Freedom of the Press Foundation.
An independent journalist explains how the Freedom of Information Act is broken
There are many side effects to being stonewalled: disbelief, anger, disillusionment, and, of course, repeating yourself. I have experienced them all. Since early 2012, I’ve been trying to access evidence …
We just sued the Justice Department over the FBI’s secret rules for using National Security Letters on journalists
Today we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department over their unpublished rules for using National Security Letters and so-called informal “exigent letters” to conduct …
Support the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's new project investigating the CIA torture report
Today, we’re launching our first crowd-funding campaign of 2015—in support of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s new reporting project on the Senate’s recently-released report on CIA torture. …