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President and Newspaper Editors Differ in Views on FOI

  • Has the sun set on FOIA’s future?: “Kevin Goldberg, legal counsel for the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) said government efforts to prevent the public release of information is forcing many newspapers to go to court.”
  • President Bush addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors today. The full text of his remarks are available in this White House press release. In regard to Freedom of Information Act requests, he stated: “…but we also spend a lot of money on analyzing FOIA, because somebody told me there’s 3.5 million FOIA requests a year, which is a lot. I can’t tell you the percentage which passed, or not passed, but there is — there’s an active interest in people reading documents. And I would hope that those who expose documents are wise about the difference between that which truly would jeopardize national security and that which should be read.” He also stated, “…I don’t email, however. And there’s a reason. I don’t want you reading my personal stuff.”
  • Related references: Significant Rise in Classification of Gov’t Docs Focus of New Reports and archive of beSpacific postings on FOI.
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