FOIA Falters
Martin E. Halstuk at the Columbia Journalism Review wrote an interesting article on the Freedom of Information Act and its need for a tuneup. FOIA became law on July 4, 1966 and over the decades the law has helped citizens and journalists expose waste and fraud in the federal government, uncover unsafe consumer products, dangerous drugs, health hazards etc. Recently FOIA has been steadily eroded by broadly interpeting FOIA exemptions, stall tactics and the high cost of litigation. More ... Continue reading
Thanks Barbie! Librarians speak out on vision paper
Free Government Information would like to extend its thanks to Barbie Selby and the entire Depository Library Council (DLC) for placing notes about the vision paper small group breakouts on their DLC Vision Blog. The DLC's timely dissemination of these comments is greatly appreciated. For the convenience of FGI readers, here are the direct links to the comments (some scrolling required!):
- Library Roles in the Non-Exclusive Environment
- Managing Collections & Delivering Content
- Adding Value
- Deploying Expertise
More news about Massachusetts Choosing OpenDocument format
Open formats are an important part of computing freedom (although alone they are not sufficient) because they give people full control of their own data. In future years, when this freedom is commonplace, I predict that the Massachusetts Decision will be seen as the turning point.Continue reading
Executive Order requires agencies to share information
On October 25, President Bush signed Executive Order 13388 that requires agencies to use their information systems to share "terrorism information" -- including information on individuals -- with counter-terrorism agencies. While the EO explicitly says that agencies must also "protect the freedom, information privacy, and other legal rights of Americans," it, like the "PATRIOT Act," appears to give the government broad and explicit authority to examine information on individuals. It sets up an Information Sharing Council whose mission includes creating an "interoperable terrorism information sharing environment to facilitate automated sharing of terrorism information." The term "terrorism information" is defined in section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform And Terrorism Prevention Act Of 2004. That definition includes information collected on foreign or domestic terrorist groups or individuals and those "reasonably believed to be assisting or associated with such groups or individuals." The law defines terrorism information to include the "activities" of these groups and individuals. Continue reading
Senate Bill Would Increase Biodefense Secrecy
SECRECY NEWS, Volume 2005, Issue No. 100, October 26, 2005 from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy. Steven Aftergood says that this "audacious" exemption "would nullify the applicability of the FOIA to an entire agency." Continue reading