National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Author: NFOIC

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Posts by NFOIC

Journalism matters: You can’t have a free society without freedom of the press

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People have asked me why Iíve been campaigning for eight months for the freedom of Peter Greste and the first answer is the obvious one: he's a friend, and not only that, a friend whose work and character I greatly respect.

But thinking a little more deeply, Iíve realised that Peter's case also touched a deep chord in me. In 1994, I was the ABC's Europe correspondent.

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Institutional Rules and Freedom of Choice: Who is the true architect of freedom?

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The Legal Studies Institute (LSI) at the College of Staten Island (CSI) presents 'Choosing Not to Choose: Autonomy, Paternalism, and Public Policy,' its inaugural annual lecture that covers Law, Philosophy, and Public Policy on Monday, September 29th at the College of Staten Island Center for the Arts, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island.

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Getting school transparency using Colorado law

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One of the many questions parents have as part of the controversial school curriculum debate in the Jefferson County School District concerns their legal rights to information from the school board.

If you are in the Jefferson County or have questions about your district there is help finding out your rights to know what is going on in your school district. The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition is holding a free informational seminar on Monday, September 29 starting at 7 p.m. about the public's right to know information and its access to open meetings.

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Going behind the scenes at Data.gov

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Data.gov wants to be the fuel that helps power the organizations and people that will change the world.

Data by itself is just the tinder for the spark of imagination and innovation. Without it many of the kinds of innovations we see like iTriage, Bright Scope, and Patients Like Me would not be possible. The Data.gov project is how the United States government, under the Obama administration, is striving to empower citizens to create the change they envision; not just by fixing a temporary problem, but by helping to let citizens solve the problem themselves.

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IRS Still Secretive About Plans to Monitor Church Sermons

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It's more of the same. The Internal Revenue Service continues to be secretive about its intentions to investigate churches and pastors – nearly two months after it settled a lawsuit with an atheist group.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) submitted a Freedom of Information request to the IRS, asking for documents related to a legal settlement with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), in which the IRS apparently adopted new protocols and procedures for the investigation of churches.

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10 Fascinating Articles From the CIA’s Secret Employee Magazine

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In 2007, Jeffrey Scudder, a veteran information technology specialist at the Central Intelligence Agency, came across the archives of the agency's in-house magazine, Studies in Intelligence. The catch: They were classified. So Scudder filed a Freedom of Information Act request. And then things got messy. "I submitted a FOIA and it basically destroyed my entire career," he told the Washington Post.

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Florida Supreme Court holds testy hearing on secret evidence

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A bitter dispute pitting Republican political consultants against groups who challenged Florida's congressional map spilled out in front of the state's highest court on Friday.

The Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether or not secret evidence should have been used during a landmark redistricting trial. The evidence, which included 31 pages of emails and documents, was reviewed by the judge but has not been made public.

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EDITORIAL: End secrecy with lawmakers’ trips

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During the legislative session and when lawmakers are not in session, the Legislatureís website at legis.sd.gov provides a wealth of information about proposed laws, committee hearings and votes. But the website is only valuable if information that the public has a right to know is made available.

Despite claims by lawmakers and state government officials that South Dakota is taking great strides toward transparency, much of what public officials and elected representatives are up to remains hidden.

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READER’S VIEWS: Governments need to be transparent

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The more transparent and open governments can be, the better for everyone. To most people, transparency has to do with disclosure. Providing information about an issue, event, project, policy, program etc. and then providing a way for people to find and view that information.

Typically, that would suffice. However, when the term is applied in our system of government that particular definition does not go far enough to meet the publicís (expected) definition of transparency. In a democratic government, transparency should be defined as disclosure and discussion.

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