On May 24, SPJ's Access Across America tour rolled into Washington, D.C., and 75 people learned Freedom of Information tricks from SPJ FOI Committee Chairman David Cuillier.
The "sold out" crowd of SPJ, National Press Club and Regional Reporters Association journalists heard Cuillier encourage them to be passionate about getting public information out of government file cabinets and into the public domain. He urged journalists to set aside a specific time each week to work on FOI activities, file a request, follow up on requests or just think about what requests to make.
Those in the room shared stories of successes and failures in trying to get access to information that is supposed to be in the public domain.
Law enforcement agencies, Cuillier explained, are the most frequent violators of Freedom of Information laws.
Gone are the days when a police reporter could walk into the cop shop and ask to see the day's incident reports — completely unredacted and thoroughly detailed. Now, he said, you have to go through a public information office to obtain reports that lack names, addresses and other specifics that are supposed to be public records.
Attendees, including several student journalists, received a 33-page handbook outlining tactics recommended by Cuillier, an assistant professor of journalist at the University of Arizona, where he teaches public affairs and computer-assisted reporting. The university, along with the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation and the National Freedom of Information Coalition, sponsored Cuillier's 45-day national tour.
The handbook can be obtained free as a PDF from cuillier@email.arizona.edu.
Among the tips:
- You can make a FOIA request asking an agency what Freedom of Information requests they have received — in other words, see what your competitors or local lawyers are working on.
- Find freedom of information laws for other countries at Freedominfo.org
- Practice, practice, practice — make frequent requests of local governments, so they get used to dealing with you and don't treat it as a big deal when you show up with a request.
- Become familiar with the Federal Office of Government Information Services at www.ogis.gov.
Cuillier acknowledged that these are tough times for the news business, but
journalism "will always be crucial" to a free society, he said.
He urged everyone in the room to "exercise your document muscles" by getting in the habit of carrying FOIA request forms in the briefcase or bag they usually carry to work and filing a request once a week not for something frivolous, but for a story they really want to pursue. Do "FOI First on Fridays," or whatever day of the week works best, he suggested.
He noted that what some government agencies charge for photocopying records is exorbitant — way beyond what is "fair and reasonable." Ten cents a copy is on the high end of reasonable, he said.
Anything more is "pricing poor people out of civic engagement," he said, emphasizing that FOIA requests can be filed of course by any member of the public, not just journalists. At his university, the contract rate for copies is 1.5 cents plus the negligible cost of paper.