AAN News
FOIA Reform Passes House, As Do Two Other Open Government Billsnew
The House of Representatives today passed a FOIA reform bill by a vote of 308-117, the AP reports. The White House voiced opposition to the legislation, saying it was "premature and counterproductive." The Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media groups that includes AAN and that has promoted FOIA reform since 2005, issued a statement applauding the House's action. The House also approved bills that would make contributions to presidential libraries public and overturn a 2001 presidential directive giving the president authority to shield his records from public view. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee today held a hearing on a companion FOIA reform bill.
AP via Editor & Publisher |
03-14-2007 4:15 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Senator's 'Official Secrets Act' Amendment in Limbo
Last week we noted that Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, was prepared to introduce an amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee that would -- like Britain's Official Secrets Act -- criminalize the communication or publication of broad swaths of classified information. A couple of days later
we reported that the senator had reconsidered and withdrawn the bill. Since then, Kyl has returned with another, less onerous yet-still-dangerous amendment that he apparently intends to take straight to the Senate floor. Tucson Weekly and San Francisco Bay Guardian both report this week on the twists and turns.
Tucson Weekly | San Francisco Bay Guardian |
03-09-2007 4:07 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Ruling Overturned; K.C. Papers Get Green Light to Publishnew
On Tuesday, the Missouri Court of Appeals overturned Judge Kelly Moorehouse's decision last week to bar The Pitch and The Kansas City Star from publishing stories based on a confidential letter written by the attorney for Kansas City Board of Public Utilities. Following the reversal, the Pitch reposted its original story based on the document, which addressed the utility's potential violations of federal pollution regulations.
The Pitch |
03-07-2007 8:07 am |
Legal News
Libel Suits Against Food Reviewers Aren't Often Successfulnew
The New York Times |
03-07-2007 6:17 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Judge Orders Kansas City Papers to Remove Website Articlesnew
On Friday afternoon, a Missouri judge ordered The Pitch and the Kansas City Star to purge online stories about the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU) that were based on a confidential letter written by BPU's attorney. Judge Kelly Moorehouse's ruling (PDF file) states that the letter is "privileged legal communication," and also barred the papers from publishing information contained in the confidential document or "otherwise referring to it in any public medium." Attorneys for The Pitch have requested an emergency hearing to settle the matter. "This judge made a serious error," says Steve Suskin, legal counsel for the Pitch's parent company, Village Voice Media. "The injunction so clearly violates the First Amendment that we have no choice but to fight for these fundamental principles in the appellate courts." (The Pitch's original story is still available online in a Google cache.)
The Pitch | The Kansas City Star |
03-05-2007 11:19 am |
Legal News
Senator Backs Off Espionage Act Proposalnew
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, who had informed colleagues that he planned to introduce an amendment to the Act that would have created the equivalent of the U.S. version of the British Official Secrets Act, reversed course yesterday, according to Cox Newspapers' Washington Bureau. Although the original amendment circulated by Kyl would have criminalized the communication or publication of any classified information "concerning efforts by the United States to identify, investigate, or prevent terrorist activity," his spokesperson now says the Senator's intentions were widely misunderstood. "It was (an overly broad) draft, only a draft and slightly premature on some people's part to say this was the final amendment," he says. A Capitol Hill newspaper credits "pushback" by the Sunshine in Government Initiative, of which AAN is a member, with the senator's change of heart.
Cox Newspapers | The Hill |
03-02-2007 11:46 am |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
FOIA Reform Bill Gets Senate Hearingnew
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a March 14 hearing to discuss a new bill from Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) that would put teeth into the Freedom of Information Act, Cox Newspapers reports. The bill seeks to end chronic FOIA delays, like those reported in a new study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, which found that the federal government's performance was at its lowest point since agencies first began reporting in 1998. The bill would allow requesters to recover attorney fees if they are forced to go to court and would create an ombudsman to oversee FOIA disputes. Witnesses at the upcoming hearing include Tom Curley, president and CEO of the Associated Press, representing the Sunshine in Government Initiative. A subcommittee in the House of Representatives held a hearing on FOIA reform two weeks ago.
Cox Newspapers | Editor & Publisher |
03-02-2007 10:41 am |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Is it Against the Law to Use Unpaid, Non-Student Interns?new
It is in California, according to Stephanie Barrett of the state's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement. "If you're not a student getting [academic] credit, you're not a true intern," she tells SF Weekly. "You're an employee and you should be paid like one." The unpaid internship has become standard practice in California, with SF Weekly reporting that San Francisco, 7x7, Diablo, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian all use them, with other publications like Dwell, Benefit and Yoga Journal offering below-minimum-wage stipends. The Bay Guardian's Editor and Publisher Bruce Brugmann denies his paper is violating labor law, saying it conforms to labor standards as interpreted by the California Newspaper Publishers Association -- and that it is helping budding writers to boot. "We're helping young people by giving them vocational training from expert editors and reporters," he says. "It's a wonderful opportunity for them."
SF Weekly |
03-01-2007 1:24 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Senator Considering Proposal to Expand Espionage Act
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, has informed colleagues that he may introduce an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, to criminalize the communication or publication of any classified information "concerning efforts by the United States to identify, investigate, or prevent terrorist activity" and expand the penalty to 20 years in prison. The amendment, which Kyl has said he plans to introduce tomorrow in a Judiciary Committee markup of an unrelated bill, would give the government tremendous power to silence critics and to limit the debate and discussion on the techniques it elects to use in the "war on terror." AAN encourages members in states with a Judiciary Committee member to call their senator and urge them to oppose Kyl's measure. The Sunshine in Government Initiative, an open-government coalition of which AAN is a member, is circulating discussion points (PDF file) regarding the proposal.
AAN News |
02-28-2007 1:16 pm |
Legal News
Congressional Democrats to Push for Federal Shield Lawnew
Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) plan to reintroduce their long-stalled legislation that would shield reporters from having to reveal their sources to federal prosecutors in most cases, according to the Chronicle. The exceptions would be in cases where disclosure could prevent imminent harm to national security, where journalists were first-hand observers to a crime, and where a corporation's trade secret was revealed. The Chronicle also reports that Sens. Chris Dodd, (D-Conn.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) are preparing to reintroduce a similar bill in the Senate.
San Francisco Chronicle |
02-20-2007 4:06 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
House Subcommittee Hears Testimony on FOIA Reformnew
In a congressional hearing yesterday in Washington, representatives from the ACLU, the National Security Archive, and the Sunshine in Government Initiative, of which AAN is a member, told lawmakers that key reforms are needed if FOIA is to truly be "democracy's x-ray." Among the recommendations heard by the newly formed House Government Reform and Oversight Information Policy Subcommittee: creating a FOIA ombusdman and penalizing non-cooperative departments. MORE: Clark Hoyt's testimony (Word doc) on behalf of SGI.
Governing Magazine |
02-15-2007 1:06 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
FOIA Report Issued, Hearing Scheduled
The Congressional Research Service issued a new report (PDF) last week on the history of the Freedom of Information Act and related legislative reform efforts. Meanwhile, the newly formed House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives has scheduled a hearing for Thursday, Feb. 15, on a FOIA reform bill that is supported by AAN and the other members of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a Washington-based coalition of media organizations committed to promoting open-government policies. Rep. John Yarmuth, the former owner of AAN member Louisville Eccentric Observer, is a member of the Information Policy subcommittee.
AAN Staff |
02-08-2007 5:23 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial, Management
Beauty of Federal Court Ruling in the Eye of the Beholder
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston yesterday ruled on a motion filed last month by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the non-profit Media Alliance. The plaintiffs asked the court to unseal documents in an antitrust lawsuit seeking to overturn a Bay Area newspaper deal between Hearst Corp. and MediaNews Group Inc. "Victory!" proclaims the Bay Guardian, which reports Illston ruled that "many of the documents" will be made public. Not so fast, says Associated Press in the pages of MediaNews' San Jose Mercury News. AP reports that while "portions of two documents" will be unsealed, the plaintiffs "failed to convince (Illston) to open key documents" in the case.
San Francisco Bay Guardian | AP via San Jose Mercury News |
01-25-2007 1:19 pm |
Legal News
Congressmen Ask DOJ To Withdraw BALCO Subpoenasnew
In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Tom Davis (R-VA) also criticized the Department of Justice for the agency's efforts to prosecute San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. The two were ruled in contempt of court in September after ignoring the subpoenas and refusing to reveal their sources to a grand jury in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid case. Currently, their sentences are suspended pending appeal.
San Francisco Chronicle |
01-19-2007 3:25 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial
Henry Waxman to Form Subcommittee on Information Accessnew
The Democratic chair of the newly re-named House Government Reform Committee has announced the creation of a subcommittee dedicated to increasing the flow of government information, reports The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The newly born Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives will promote transparency in government, says the California congressman. "We have legislative jurisdiction over [the Freedom of Information Act] and some of the other issues that relate to openness in government," Waxman told the The Hill. ALSO: Florida's new Governor plans an open-government office.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press |
01-10-2007 1:00 pm |
Legal News
Tags: Editorial
