More FOIA Requests, Please

Newsrooms may be slashing content and staff but one thing has (apparently) not suffered – Freedom of Information Act requests. A New York Times article found The Associated Press and Hearst Corporation have actually increased the number of FOIA requests sent to the federal government (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/business/media/15hearst.html?ref=business). “Some big companies, like Hearst and The Associated Press, have been quietly ramping up their legal efforts, by doing more of the work in-house — and saving costs by not hiring outside lawyers — and being more aggressive in states where they can recoup legal fees and at the federal level, which also allows plaintiffs in such access cases to sue for legal fees when they win,” according to the newspaper.

Hearst is now pursuing more First Amendment cases than ever before, according to the Times, and The AP was a part of 40 lawsuits in 2009 – up from about 30 four years ago.

This is a very good sign – for reporters and readers. Investigative work is one of the most important things journalists do. Reporters have a social and, I think, ethical duty to hold government agencies accountable for their deeds and dollars. I understand how expensive and time-consuming investigative work can be but it is vital to a strong, democratic society. It will be an enormous loss if this sort of work is lost in the breakdown of mainstream media, social media and the Internet.

These stories also show why professional journalists and their skills are so important. Professional reporters have access to files, people and information that is not otherwise available to “citizen journalists.” If an informant, whistleblower or disgruntled employee has an anonymous tip, is he going to call a blogger or a reporter at The Washington Post? A Post reporter will have the greatest impact. A professional (compensated) writer will also have the time and know-how to dig deep into documents. What is a blogger going to do with tens of thousands of pages worth of documents? Is a “citizen journalist” going to have the financial resources to appeal denied FOIA requests?

Smaller and mid-sized news organizations still have resources, though, even if they don’t have big bucks or high-profile attorneys. In California, there is the First Amendment Coalition (http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/legal-hotline/), which provides reporters with free legal consultations.

And closer to home there is good work being done at the intersection of journalism and the law: the Medill Innocence Project (http://www.medillinnocenceproject.org/). Through the project, undergraduates have the opportunity to investigate “possible miscarriages of justice.” The work done by these students have led to the release of wrongfully convicted men. Though prosecutors in the Andrew McKinney case are going after students and the program in some horribly misdirected expedition, it does not change the significance of the work being done by the project.

(Originally a post for a Medill class; February 2010).