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The Obama administration advised federal agencies Thursday to release their records and information to the public unless foreseeable harm would result.
Despite President Obama's promise of more open government, the Justice Department is resisting pressure to release documents the Bush administration kept secret about domestic wiretapping, data collection on travelers and U.S. citizens, and interrogation of suspected terrorists.
Government watchdogs are cheering President Barack Obama's move to change how open records laws are interpreted as a sign of greater disclosure of agency information than during the Bush administration.
In a Dec. 31 story, The Associated Press reported that Freedom of Information legislation signed by President Bush aims to reverse an order by former Attorney General John Ashcroft instructing agencies to lean against releasing information when there was uncertainty about how doing so would affect national security.
President Bush on Monday signed a bill aimed at giving the public and the media greater access to information about what the government is doing. The new law toughens the Freedom of Information Act, the first such makeover to the signature public-access law in a decade. It amounts to a congressional pushback against the Bush administration's movement to greater secrecy since the terrorist attacks of 2001.
Congress on Tuesday struck back at the Bush administration's trend toward secrecy since the 2001 terrorist attacks, passing legislation to toughen the Freedom of Information Act and increasing penalties on agencies that don't comply.
Reversing a trend toward secrecy, federal agencies would have to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests under legislation approved by the Senate Friday.
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday that attempts by governments to censor Web site contents were doomed, because banned information can seep out despite official injunctions.
Transform FOI vs Home Office suppression of researchThe Home Office has refused to release a confidential assessment of its anti-drugs strategy requested by Transform, a pressure group.
CIA Interrogation Tapes Destroyed Shortly After News Reports on CIA Black Sites and Interrogation MethodsAlthough the communications remain classified, the dates and summaries of their content provided by the government reveals that a request to destroy the 92 tapes were made just days after The Washington Post reported on the existence of secret overseas CIA prisons known as "b …
You Call This Reform?Scarred by our dysfunctional freedom of information system, Paul Farrell took a look at the Government's plan to reform it - and he's not impressed
Judge rules FBI can't keep Cheney interview buriedA federal judge ruled on Thursday that the FBI must release its June 2004 interview with then-Vice President Dick Cheney concerning the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
President Obama: 'For first time in history, records of White House visitors will be available to public on an ongoing basis'President Obama is reversing White House policy on its visitor logs, records that previous administrations have kept under wraps.
Patience Pays Off For ACLUPersistence, time, and a naive faith in justice paid off for two young ACLU lawyers. They used the Freedom of Information Act to bring to light the sad and immoral detention and torture practices implemented under the Bush government. This is a victory for democracy and justice.
Right-wingers are always eager to dismiss the existence -- and the threat -- of far-right extremistsexcerpt: ''" Conservatives have been working like mad to whitewash out of public view the existence of violent right-wing extremists, only to run into one problem: They keep popping back up again, time after time. Darned reality intrudes again.......""
Net Neutrality Bill Needs Your Support | TPMCafeNet Neutrality Bill Needs Your Support By Joshua Levy - August 3, 2009, 11:44AM Last Friday, just as Congress was preparing for August recess, Reps.
FBI Files: Saddam Hussein Faked Having WMDsexcerpt: ""WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein feared Iran's arsenal more than a U.S. attack, and even considered asking ex-President George W. Bush "to protect" Iraq from its neighbor, once secret FBI files show.
Leslie Harris: Because "Classified Ad Killer" Doesn't Have the Same RingThe latest indictment of the Demon Internet comes in the form of the so-called "Craigslist Killer" who allegedly trolled the online community's adult-services listings to find his victims.
Declass Board Tells Obama Openness is "At Risk"In a new letter to President Obama, the Public Interest Declassification Board warned that reliable public access to government information, the very foundation of representative democracy, may be in jeopardy.
Cabinet documents not exempt under FoIDocuments marked "cabinet in confidence" won't necessarily remain confidential and exempt from Freedom of Information (FoI) laws. And wheeling documents in and out of the cabinet room just to keep them secret is out, says Special Minister of State John Faulkner.
Sweeping changes to FOI lawsApplication fees will be scrapped, cabinet documents will be made available sooner and a pro-disclosure culture encouraged under a Rudd Government overhaul of Freedom of Information laws announced today.
Lambeth Council releases list of 800 empty homes to squattersLambeth council has released a list of 800 empty properties to a squatter's organisation after a Freedom of Information request.
Conroy's dept refuses NBN FOIStephen Conroy's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has refused the iiNet-backed Tech Wired Australia request to access the expert panel's recommendations on the National Broadband Network bids using freedom of information laws.
Freedom of Info Officers: They're Just Not That Into YouThese past 12 months, have, once again, been a rich year for rejection. Where do I start? There's State Department, which took six months to even acknowledge my records request.
Thoughts of Storm Troopers Filling Spy CaseLegal scholars, the blogopshere and the twitterati have been scratching their heads for a week following the Obama administration's assertion that it might "withdraw" (.pdf) classified documents at the center of a closely watched spy case. Some are wondering whether the feds wil …
Greens, Liberals join forces on FOI lawThe ACT Greens have joined forces with the Liberals for the first time in the Assembly to change the territory's Freedom of Information laws.
Exclusive: ID cards are here - but police can't read themThe first UK ID cards have already been issued - but no UK police officers or border guards have any way of reading the data stored on them.
Limbaugh is Afraid That An Open and Honest Government Will Make It Easier To Hold Bush Accountable For His ActionsLIMBAUGH: What I'm afraid of is that what Obama did with this executive order is actually make it easier for the media to go get Bush documents. Because you know Pelosi and some of the guys over in congress are talking about war crimes trials and charges and so forth. […]
Those Kingsnorth police injuries in full: six insect bites and a toothache When climate camp protesters descended on the site of the Kingsnorth power station for a week-long summer demonstration, the scale of the police operation to cope with them was enormous.
Freedom of Information a Privilege Not A Right?Here we go again, lawyers trying to make an endrun around the Constitution. The arguments are specious and if the SCC rules in their favour, another curtain will come down on our freedoms.
Government's wages of spin jump 400%THE State Government has almost tripled the size of its main spin machine in the past eight years, with taxpayers funding a four-fold increase in wages for the Premier's strategic communications branch.
ACLU: DoD Documents Show US Tortured Iraqi Detainees With TazersThe American Civil Liberties Union released Department of Defense documents today that provide further evidence that prisoner abuse in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq was systemic.
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