Key Documents: Section I. Journalism, Media, and the Law - Access to Public Records

Introduction

The following document is the Introduction to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Guide from May 2004. It offers insights into the intentions of the original FOIA legislation in 1966 to provide public access to federal executive branch information in order to “ensure an informed citizenry” deemed necessary to “check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.” The guide discusses where the FOIA, considered one of the most widely used and effective newsgathering tools, has traditionally worked for journalists and where it has fallen short of disclosure goals. It also references subsequent acts, amendments, and additions (1974, 1976, 1986, and 1996) over the years that served to expand or limit the impact of the FOIA.

Although The Congressional Record had long provided key information for reporting on the business of the federal government, the sheer size and complexity of the executive branch—and its expanding role in governing—made it imperative for journalists to gain access to the “records” of its various “agencies.” The FOIA first controls the breadth of this access by carefully defining what constitutes an agency and what qualifies as a record. It then further limits the scope of record requests by stipulating nine specific categories where disclosure can be denied. The FOIA exemption categories include national security matters, internal agency regulations and procedures, disclosures banned by other statutes, trade secrets, agency memoranda or working papers, personal privacy material, law enforcement records, financial institution documents, and geological data. There have been much greater restrictions placed on records seen as national security-related since the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001.

The FOIA requests can cover records in both print and electronic formats. Government agencies are mandated to respond to requests for records within 20 working days, and members of the press can get “expedited review” when immediate need for material exists. Executive agencies must report annually to Congress on the records where access was given or denied and the costs involved. In addition, further accountability has been assured by requiring the agency employees to identify themselves to the requester when access to a government record has been denied. Members of the press pay no search fees for record requests and get the first 100 pages of copies without charge.

—Glenn Lewis Volume Editor

Freedom of Information Act Guide, May 2004

Introduction

The Freedom of Information Act generally provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to federal agency records, except to the extent that such records (or portions of them) are protected from public disclosure by one of nine exemptions or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions.

Enacted in 1966, and taking effect on July 4, 1967, the FOIA firmly established an effective statutory right of public access to executive branch [Page 1526]information in the federal government. The principles of government openness and accountability underlying the FOIA, however, are inherent in the democratic ideal: “The basic purpose of [the] FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.” The United States Supreme Court has emphasized that only “[o]fficial information that sheds light on an agency's performance of its statutory duties falls squarely within that statutory purpose.”

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