Biden’s legacy: Leaving FOIA in shambles
AP Illustration
The Freedom of Information Act gives the public a right to access government records.
The Freedom of Information Act is supposed to shed light on government activity by giving journalists and the public access to government records. But the law is in shambles. From endless delays in response time and unjustified refusals to ridiculously overbroad redactions, FOIA is plagued with problems.
We must fight back against the government’s refusal to comply with FOIA and urge Congress to reform the law and end backlogs of requests, reduce the number of exemptions, and overturn damaging court decisions.
Featured Items
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New documents show the Obama admin aggressively lobbied to kill transparency reform in Congress
New documents obtained through Freedom of the Press Foundation’s lawsuit against the Justice Department reveal that the Obama administration - the self described “most transparent administration ever” - aggressively lobbied behind the scenes in 2014 to kill modest Freedom of Information Act reform that had virtually unanimous support in Congress. …
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New documents shed light on the Justice Dept's secret rules for targeting journalists with National Security Letters
In July 2015, Freedom of the Press Foundation sued the Justice Department (DOJ) over the agency’s secret rules governing how the FBI can target members of the media with due process-free National Security Letters, and we have just received documents back in the ongoing lawsuit. These secret rules matter because …
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Freedom of the Press Foundation sues the Justice Department for details about its push to block transparency reform
Freedom of the Press Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department for all correspondence the agency has had with Congress over proposed FOIA reform bills that died last year in Congress, despite having unanimous support of all its members. More than a year …
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Announcing a new crowd-funding campaign to help local independent journalists hold police accountable
UPDATE: Thanks to a generous donation from the Dodge Foundation, the next $3,000 in donations will be matched. So go here to donate and see the amount double! Today Freedom of the Press Foundation is proud to announce a new crowd-funding campaign that will fund local journalists around the United …
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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 surveillance of journalists. Last year, after a backlash stemming from the surveillance of Associated Press and Fox News journalists, the …
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Laura Poitras lawsuit against the US for repeated searches at the border hightlights critical press freedom issue
Awarding-winning filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras sued the Department of Homeland Security and several other federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) yesterday, demanding an explanation for the dozens of times the US government detained and questioned her traveling over the border from 2006-2012. Poitras, who is also …
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Dangerous 'cybersecurity' bills going through Congress threaten the rights of journalists and whistleblowers
Along with dozens of other civil liberties organizations, Freedom of the Press Foundation has signed on to two letters strongly opposing the dangerous “cybersecurity” bills making their way through Congress and expected to be voted on sometime in the next week. The bills are little more than new surveillance powers …
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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. The Bureau, which is partnering with the Rendition Project and long-time torture and secret prisons researchers Crofton Black and Steve …
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This Week in Transparency: Whistleblowers remain mired in broken system
'When revealing secret documents, one law helps us like no other.' Good piece over at War Is Boring on how it used the FOIA for national security reporting, when it failed, and the need for legislative reform.LAWSUITS DoD fights lawsuit seeking unclassified report on nuclear needs of Israel and …
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FOIA Rundown: The Year in Review, Private Prisons, and Stolen Brains
This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. Regrets the error: My last newsletter referred to "ace blogger Andrew Howard." Mr. Howard's first name is Alex.Also, while not technically a correction, I forgot to give …
