New DOJ FOIA Guidance Issued

DOJ Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) Guidance: Segregating and Marking Documents for Release in Accordanc with The Open Government Act

  • “…it is important that agencies do not “white out” information when withholding it under the FOIA, as that can make it difficult for a requester to identify the amount of withheld material and its location within a document. Instead, agencies must mark documents in a way that makes it readily apparent to the requester where within a document information has been withheld. This can be accomplished by darkening, or “blacking out” the withheld portions of the documents, or by inserting brackets around them, or by outlining or “boxing” them, or any other method that ensures that a requester can easily discern where the redactions have been made. Further, each page containing redactions should be marked to show the amount of information being withheld and the exemption being asserted and, if technically feasible, those markings should be placed at the point in the record where the deletion occurs.”
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    Posted in: E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research
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