Knight Institute and Committee to Protect Journalists Call for Release of Intelligence Report on Khashoggi Murder
Washington, D.C., October 6, 2022—The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Committee to Protect Journalists today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the CIA, and the Public Interest Declassification Board seeking immediate release of a U.S. intelligence report on the…
Report on press freedom finds mix of problems and progress under Biden administration
New York, January 13, 2022 – One year into office, President Joe Biden’s administration has emphasized the importance of global press freedom and improved daily relations with U.S. media – but has yet to turn many promises into action, according to a special report by Leonard Downie Jr. for the Committee to Protect Journalists. The…
Supreme Court could limit FOIA, curtail investigative reporting
It’s been over eight years since Jonathan Ellis, an investigative reporter at the Argus Leader, filed what he thought was a routine Freedom of Information Act request. He wanted five years of reimbursement data from the Agriculture Department (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)–a program that helps people with low incomes buy food from grocery…
Case in Point
A journalist details one fight over records requests in the United States By Michael Pell In December 2010, Robin Gordon faced an ultimatum. She had found that a debt collection company had purchased a $291 tax lien on an apartment she owned in Atlanta, Georgia, after her mortgage company failed to pay a small portion…
Thwarting Freedom of Information
Agencies exploit every loophole to evade disclosure requirements By Jason Leopold On December 13, 2016, I filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI seeking a wide range of documents about a series of highly controversial decisions the bureau made in the weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election that Democratic lawmakers…
Transition to Trump: What Obama’s Freedom of Information legacy means for press
As a new presidential administration prepares to take over the U.S., CPJ examines the status of press freedom, including the challenges journalists face from surveillance, harassment, limited transparency, the questioning of libel laws, and other factors.
New hurdles for Hungary’s press as Orbán restricts FOI requests
“This is the best thing that has ever happened in Hungary.” Katalin Erdélyi, a freedom of information activist, was referring to a ground-breaking website launched in Hungary in 2012. “I was glad because I realized the potential and how it will help me get all the information I longed for,” she told me. The website,…
Nigeria’s new FOI law brings celebration, challenges
There is a deserved celebration in the Nigerian media over the recently passed Freedom of Information Act, which provides citizens with broad access to public records and information held by a public official or institution. It is the climax of an 11-year struggle to pass such a law in the Nigerian parliament. Indeed, the call…
FOIA needs new muscle behind it, not just promises
These are busy days for Freedom of Information. On April 5, the watchdog Web site that knows no borders, WikiLeaks, posted a classified U.S. military video showing U.S. forces firing on Iraqi civilians, killing many, including two Reuters journalists, as well as wounding children. Two days later, the Pentagon posted a redacted U.S. military assessment of the same incident concluding that U.S. troops fired “in accordance…