Title: Freedom of Information and Open Records
1 Freedom of Information and Open
Records
2Overview
- Stories and open records
- Documents and databases to seek
- Resources for your newsroom
- Tracking your newsrooms FOI requests
- Planning, requesting and negotiating
- Overcoming common denials
- Guiding reporters to successful practices
3The Blade (Toledo) FOI The Blade obtained extens
ive investigative files from the military and the
National Archives. Findings The Blade detailed
atrocities committed by a platoon in Vietnam.
4Newsday FOI Newsday obtained doctor directorie
s from the Web and through an open records
request the database of disciplinary actions
taken against doctors. Findings Despite promi
ses of high quality and rigorous screening, New
York's biggest managed health care networks
offered customers dozens of doctors disciplined
for serious, even fatal-wrongdoing, Newsday
reveals. Even though the health insurers are
aware that the state punished these doctors for
such offenses as botched surgery, sexual
misconduct, drug abuse or cheating government
insurance plans, they never tell their millions
of customers.
5The Washington Post FOI The Post obtained throug
h open records requests death certificates,
police reports, autopsies, caseworker notes,
hospital records and internal death summaries.
Findings 40 boys and girls, most of them infants
and toddlers lost their lives after government
workers failed to take key preventive action or
placed children in unsafe homes or institutions.
Although 15 of the 40 deaths were ruled to be due
to natural causes, government officials reviewing
those cases found numerous critical errors.
Seventeen of the deaths were homicides, most of
them in homes.
6The Dayton Daily News FOI The Daily News obtaine
d Peace Corps records through FOIA and court
battles. Findings The Daily News detailed unrepo
rted assaults, rapes and murders against Peace
Corps volunteers.
7Detroit Free Press FOI State freedom of informa
tion request of 500,000-record database from
Michigan Department of Community Health.
Findings the Detroit Free Press pinpointed the
neighborhoods with the worst lead poisoned
children in Michigan. Areas of Grand Rapids,
Detroit and Benton Harbor showed the highest
concentrations of sick children. Also found that
state health officials did not use the data to
zero in on these areas.
WORST MICHIGAN NEIGHBORHOODS Lead-poisoned
blocks pinpointed Funding doesn't target areas w
ith clusters of children most in need
BY WENDY WENDLAND- BOWYER, TINA LAM AND MEGAN C
HRISTENSEN FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS July 29, 20
03 It is the worst hot spot for lead-poiso
ned kids in Michigan, a neighborhood of tree-line
d blocks in southwestern Grand Rapids where kids
ride bikes past century-old houses and play on po
rches with peeling paint. Ninety-one lead-
poisoned children have lived on
those three blocks in the last five years,
suffering the effects of a poison that harms thei
r brains and ability to develop. The neigh
borhood has the most lead-poisoned
children of any identified in the state,
according to a Free Press analysis of Michigan De
partment of Community Health data.
8 U.S. Rarely Seeks Charges For Deaths in Work
place By DAVID BARSTOW Remy Gerstein and Robin
Stein contributed additional reporting for this
article. The data analysis was done by Tom Torok
100 workers die each year as result of acts
of intentional wrongdoing or plain indifference
they died because a boss removed safety devices
to speed up production, or because a company
ignored explicit safety warnings, or because a
worker was denied proper protective gear.
Officials at the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration have long described these
cases as 'horror stories' and pledged to press
wherever possible for criminal charges against
those responsible. An examination of workplac
e deaths over a span of two decades, from 1982 to
2002, finds that OSHA declined to seek
prosecution in 93 percent of such 'horror
stories' it investigated. OSHA's reluctance t
o seek prosecution persists even when employers
have been cited before for very same safety
violation.
The New York Times FOI The Times used federal an
d state open records laws to obtain details on
workplace deaths and injuries.
Findings For twenty years, 93 percent of the
cases in which OSHA determined an employer's
"willful safety violations" caused a death, the
agency declined to prosecute.
Note IRE and NICAR offer four sets of OSHA
workplace safety data through the Database
Library.
9Atlanta Journal-Constitution FOI Driving and cri
minal records obtained under Georgia Open Records
Laws. Findings Seventy-two percent of the driver
s had a serious violation on his or her personal
or professional driving record, ranging from
excessive speed to DUI. In the past seven years,
622 taxicab drivers have had their licenses
suspended, including 94 who currently have a
suspended driver's license. What's more, the inve
stigation found 63 taxicab drivers with criminal
records in Georgia, including 10 who had spent
time in prison. The charges included armed
robbery, child molestation and kidnapping.
10The Washington Post FOI The Post used federal
and state freedom of information requests to
obtain pharmaceutical and physician prescription
records. Findings The Post detailed a expandin
g illegal trade in prescription drugs that can
lead to injury and death.
11The Center for Public Integrity
FOI CPI used 73 FOIA requests to obtain contract
and bidding information. Findings The Center det
ailed how companies and individuals who were big
contributors to Bushs campaigns are making
billions of dollars in war contracts.
12Stories
- Honor and Betrayal KMGH-TV 7
- Deep Trouble The Gulf in Peril Naples Daily
News
- The Station Fire Who was there, and why did 100
die The Providence Journal
- A Dangerous Business Frontline, New York
Times and CBC
- Crumbling Schools The Miami Herald
13Stories
- Children Die as Safety Net Fails The Kansas
City Star
- Still Drunk, Still Driving WITI-TV
- Perks of Power WTVF-TV
- Dearth Taxes The Metro Times
- The Texas Clemency Memos The Atlantic Monthly
14 Documents and Databases
- Public employee salaries
- Accidents
- Inspections
- Audits
- Disciplinary records, worker disputes
- Investigations
- E-mail
- Disclosure reports
- Contracts
15 Documents and Databases
- Education
- Tax records
- Property records
- Government seizures
- Inventories
- Purchases
- Expenses
16Web sites and help
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
www.rcfp.org and www.rcfp.org/foi_lett.html
- Includes FOI letter generator
- Investigative Reporters and Editors
www.ire.org/foi and www.ire.org/extraextra/archive
s
- Organizes resources and stories based on open
records
- Missouri School of Journalism FOI Center
http//foi.missouri.edu/foiwww/
- Offers excellent, easy-to-find links
17Web sites and help
- Society for Professional Journalists Open Doors
FOI resource http//www.spj.org/foia_opendoors.a
sp
- Use its A-Z guide to find subject information
quickly
- Society of Environmental Journalists
http//www.sej.org/foia/index
- Find out whats worked and hasnt in its Tip
Sheet and FOI War Stories pages
18Tracking FOIs
- Keeping a log of requests
- Document or database requested?
- Date and Time?
- How requested Fax, E-mail, Snail mail?
- Who was contacted?
- Who contacted?
- Response?
- Careful follow-up
19Planning, Negotiating
- Who has the record?
- Who do they share it with?
- Has it been released before?
- The law and possible exemptions?
- What information is needed for the story?
- How much time do you have?
20 Overcoming denials
- Just ask
- Check the Web
- Asking for a single record
- Going to a different agency
- Going up a management level
- Getting details on expenses
- Narrowing the request
- Planning for redaction
- Knowing the law, planning the appeal
- Court as a last resort
21 Guiding reporters
- Create an FOI-oriented newsroom
- An FOI every day
- An FOI on every story
- Filing FOIs early and often
- Write about denials when appropriate
- Explain the usefulness of public records
protecting the public
22More IRE resources
- IRE Resource Center www.ire.org/resoucecenter/
- Contest forms with FOI questions
- More than 2,000 tip sheets from IRE and NICAR
conferences
- Searchable database of more than 20,000 stories,
both print and broadcast
23More IRE resources
- Training opportunities at http//www.ire.org/train
ing/
- Better Watchdog Workshops for more on
investigative techniques
- NICAR boot camps
- IRE membership is the key at http//www.ire.org/me
mbership
24Where it begins