by Joseph P. Tarataro | Executive Editor
Joe Tartaro, Executive Editor
Fifty-three journalism and open government groups on Aug. 10 for the second time called on President Barack Obama to stop practices in federal agencies that prevent important information from getting to the public, likening them to censorship.
The national organizations sent a letter to Obama urging changes to policies that constrict information flow to the public, including prohibiting journalists from communicating with staff without going through public information offices, requiring government PIOs to vet interview questions and monitoring interviews between journalists and sources.
This was the second letter the groups sent to the White House regarding government transparency. The first letter—sent July 8, 2014—and a follow-up letter sent Aug. 5, 2014, were met with a non-response response from the White House on Aug. 11, 2014.
“President Obama pledged to lead the most transparent administration in history, but we have yet to see this promise fulfilled,” said David Cuillier, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) Freedom of Information Committee. “His term may be coming to a close, but it’s not too late to make some real changes in the way officials work with journalists to improve the accuracy and speed in which important information is relayed to the public.
“The United States Freedom of Information Act celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 4, 2016. Now is the perfect time for the President to change the practices of his administration and participate in a public dialogue toward improving the flow of information to the American people,” Cuillier added.
The most recent letter, like prior letters, outlines specific examples of excessive information control, considered by many journalists as a form of censorship:
- Officials blocking reporters’ requests to talk to specific staff people;
- Excessive delays in answering interview requests that stretch past reporters’ deadlines;
- Officials conveying information “on background,” refusing to give reporters what should be public information unless they agree not to say who is speaking, and
- Federal agencies blackballing reporters who write critically of them.
Mark Horvit, executive director of Investigative Reporters & Editors—one of the groups signing the letter, said these types of policies “fundamentally restrict the quality of the information that citizens get about what government agencies are doing. When researchers, administrators and experts cannot speak freely, it becomes impossible to get a full and honest picture of a government program or policy. Such secrecy only fuels distrust and gives members of the public a right to wonder what is being done in their name, with their money,” he said.
Kathryn Foxhall, SPJ FOI Committee member, is quoted in the joint press release, calling these types of restraints alarming and forms of censorship.
“Surveys of journalists and public information officers demonstrate that the restraints have become pervasive across the country,” Foxhall said. “This information suppression is fraught with danger – especially when it concerns the health and safety of the American people.”
Never before has such a broad-based coalition of journalism and good-governance organizations spoken out on this issue, although the failure of the Obama administration to fulfill its promise of transparency has been the subject of many news stories and commentaries.
