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Stories

Sometimes, it’s hard to understand why public records and FOIA are so important to a democracy. These stories will help. (A list in progress)

  • Why so secret, Kansas?”, Kansas City Star, Nov. 12, 2017. An award-winning series showing the effects of secrecy in government. Think about this story as you navigate Arizona’s public records atmosphere – you’ll see some similarities and some stark differences. It’s also reminds us why access to seemingly sensitive information is so important.

Tipsheets

Testimony and articles

Today I would like to describe two of the biggest impediments to the effective use of FOIA among journalists, and I detail others in my written statement. But at core, they all suggest a widespread but wrong default position that records belong to the Government and not to the public. This position turns FOIA upside down. Instead of the Government convincing the public that certain information must be kept secret, in practice the public must convince officials that it should be released.
Reporters had historically gone undercover to learn about the workings of important institutions. However this [new FOIA law in the 1960s], combined with the widespread use of new copy machines, changed both the nature and ethics of investigative and beat reporting, ushering in a documents and data-based journalism that was less anecdotal and less ethically hazardous.