White Paper: Homefront Confidential
On September 4, 2004, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) released a white paper entitled Homefront Confidential - Fifth Edition - How the War On Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know. The report link is a 2 MB PDF.
In the white paper, the RCFP asserts that for the past three years, the Bush administration has taken actions to restrict information from reaching the public. Some of those actions RCFP alleges include:
- A directive to agency heads from then Attorney General Ashcroft to interpret the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to allow agencies to deny access more often to public records if a claim of invasionof privacy or a claim of breach of national security can be alleged (emphasis mine).
- New layers of security for government documents that make it virtually impossible to exercise oversight of government operations.
- New federal laws and regulations that override state open records laws.
With the conclusion of Sunshine Week last week and the North Idaho College's Popcorn Forum on the First Amendment this week, this seems like an appropriate paper to read and consider.
posted by Bill McCrory | 10:00 AM
2 Comments:
The report is an unsettling look at the erosion of our freedoms brought about by this nation's inability to control its nearly pathological fear and those who exploit it for their own ends.
Whitecaps is an intelligent and necessary island in an ocean of blogs filled with undisciplined knee-jerk blatherings.
Gateway,
Thank you, but rest assured I can be undisciplined and blather with the best of them.
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