Author: NFOIC

The National Freedom of Information Coalition is pleased to announce the publication of its latest white paper, “Blueprint to Transparency: Non-compliance and Lack of Enforcement of Open Records Laws in Select U.S. States.” The paper looks at the varying enforcement mechanisms by state governments, including criminal penalties, civil penalties and attorney fee-shifting. NFOIC’s research reveals that […]

Read More… from NFOIC’s latest white paper examines open records laws enforcement

Democratic lawmakers in Annapolis have filed three separate bills aimed at strengthening the state’s public records law, which is used by journalists, attorneys, inmates and other members of the public to access government documents at the state and local levels. One bill seeks to give more enforcement power to an oversight panel created in 2015 […]

Read More… from Maryland lawmakers file trio of bills aimed at strengthening public records law, empowering compliance board

The Hamilton County Attorney’s Office destroyed 98% of records requested by the Times Free Press, amid a disagreement over reasonable charges. The fight for the records, which were requested six months ago this week, continued past the destruction of the records for four months before the office admitted destroying the more than 1,400 pages of […]

Read More… from Hamilton County attorneys destroy public records after Times Free Press request

The federal judiciary charges 10 cents per page to pull up court files from its online record repository. The fees can add up quickly, and users must consider whether each click to view a public record is worth the cost. But a lawsuit in court Monday in Washington challenges the government’s paywall to search online for case […]

Read More… from Should the public pay a dime for access to court records?

BOSTON — A provision buried deep in Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed budget would limit access to birth and death certificates in Massachusetts. If approved, individuals would be able to obtain their own vital records but access would be restricted for the public. Birth and marriage certificates would not be available to the public until 90 […]

Read More… from Gov. Baker’s birth certificate proposal raises freedom of information questions

Ginger McCall’s parting gift to Oregon was a crash course in the importance of independence. McCall, Oregon’s first public records advocate, resigned last year after just 18 months on the job, citing pressure from the governor’s general counsel to adopt stances that supported the governor’s agenda – not the public interest as her office’s name would suggest. […]

Read More… from Editorial: Oregon should not retreat on independence for public records advocate

JEFFERSON CITY — In 2017, a prisoner in Farmington Correctional Center wrote to the state auditor’s office. The handwritten letter made a formal request for records related to the prison’s medical provider. “This information I obtain through this request will be used to build a suit against the inadequate medical treatment that Corizon Healthcare provides,” […]

Read More… from Who’s been asking Galloway for records? Lawyers, reporters and political operatives.

“The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” —George Orwell The collapse of local news reporting in communities across California and the rest of the country is a slow-motion disaster undermining the very fabric of our democracy in ways large and small. Driven in part by high […]

Read More… from Burns: Hard times for truth, journalism