From FOIFT: Former El Paso Times reporter Zahira Torres and editor Robert Moore will be honored next month with Texas' most prestigious open-government award for their work exposing cheating at the El Paso Independent School District.
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Read More… from Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas announces James Madison Award recipients
From Jason Leopold at The Public Record: A few weeks ago, the nonpartisan organization Cause of Action posted a story on its website about a secret Pentagon policy that calls for certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that may generate media attention to first be approved by the Pentagon.
Naturally, I was eager to find out what FOIA requests analysts believed would be of interest to the Pentagon. So, I filed a FOIA for a copy of the list of those FOIAs.
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Read More… from The 95 media-worthy FOIA requests flagged for Pentagon approval
From The National Press Club: A National Press Club panel will convene on Aug. 12 to debate federal public-affairs practices that some say can cut the public off from its affairs.
Although executive branch communications offices can be useful, at times indispensable, in helping the press cover the government, reporters need to always be free to seek information in other ways. Yet doing so has become difficult to a degree that some say jeopardizes open government.
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Read More… from Government Public Affairs Offices: More Hindrance Than Help?
From The Seattle Times: Seattle Times criminal-justice reporter Mike Carter has received a Key Award from the Washington Coalition for Open Government for his perseverance in pursuing the public release of a May Day 2012 memo that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) initially claimed did not exist.
Carter, 58, said the award, presented Friday, came “right out of the blue.”
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Read More… from Seattle Times report wins public-records award
From Businessweek: Open-government advocates said a proposed U.S. rule that could lead to more federal jobs being classified as sensitive may also make it easier to fire federal whistle-blowers.
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Read More… from Watchdog groups decry Obama move limiting whistle-blower shield
From Law.com:
A state court judge has extended the protections of New Jersey's newspersons' Shield Law to independent bloggers, even those who crusade against perceived government corruption and mismanagement.
Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy on April 12 quashed a prosecutor's subpoena of Tina Renna, president of the Union County Watchdog Association, who posts frequently on a website called "The County Watchers."
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Read More… from Blogger need not reveal sources, judge says in extending Shield Law
From University of Colorado Journalism and Mass Communication:
Ryan Gabrielson of the Center for Investigative Reporting’s California Watch has won the 2013 Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting.
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Read More… from Award goes to California Watch reporter for police reporting
From Knight Foundation News Challenge:
In many ways it’s easier than it’s ever been to learn about and interact with the institutions and communities around us. But there’s a long way to go. How can we make the places we live more awesome through data and technology? How can we make public information more relevant and useful? This is the Knight News Challenge: Open Gov.
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From Eric Newton at the Knight Foundation:
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Read More… from Why journalists need to get behind the #opendata movement
