How You Can Help

Pushing Back

In the latter half of the 20^th Century, we saw significant progress toward transparency in government in our cities, states and in the federal government. Since 2000, we’ve seen steady erosion and increasing secrecy, particularly at the federal level.

In a speech in Riverside, California in May, 2004, Associated Press President Tom Curley committed his organization to being more aggressive in its coverage of open government issues and he urged journalists and journalism organizations to join the fight.

“The government is pushing hard for secrecy. We must push back equally hard for openness.”

What can news organizations and individual journalists do to push back?

Start by covering open government issues more aggressively and not letting up. Go hard after the stories on open government, whether it’s the action of an official or agency or a new policy or law. Those stories are important – and with a little effort you can make them interesting as well.
Create on open government or government secrecy beat. If all news organizations gave open government issues the attention AP has in the past year, we’d see a phenomenal change – and more transparency.
Report your own open government skirmishes. Especially your losses. Let the reader/viewer know what they can’t know because some public official said “no.” Explain the law, good or bad. And the official’s action, right or wrong.
Talk about open government in every day stories. That’s when the inclusion or exclusion of the information will resonate with citizens.
Tell stories of average people seeking information from the government. And treat them with a little dignity in the process, so others won’t be discouraged in the fight. We tend to portray the gadfly as a nuisance or an oddball, but that’s only one definition.
Know the laws and policies on access – and be assertive in exercising your right as a citizen for that access.
Encourage your news organization to be aggressive in supporting your efforts and those of your colleagues to get information. Urge them to push back. Most states now have laws allowing you to recover court fees if you sue for records, and win..
Encourage your news organization to become involved with open government coalitions. These exist in most states and fight for better laws and regulations.
Become personally active in a journalism organization and get involved in its freedom of information efforts. If it doesn’t have an FOI program, help it to develop one.

FOI Information, Please

Our goal is to make sure our member organizations are heard, early and often, on open government issues. To achieve that, we need quality intelligence.

A few good spies would help. Actually, a lot of them.

You may qualify. If your reporting puts you in contact with the Congress, the administration and the agencies, or the courts – or anyone who is plugged in to those places -- we’d like to enlist your help.

All you have to do is send us an e-mail if you come across something of (a bill, regulation, new policy, closed court hearing, etc) that affects access to information. If you can, also take a few moments to share as much background information as possible or to point us to contacts or sources of information that would help us learn more.

We’ll use the information to inform our coalition organizations and their members working on open government issues and by regularly posting news of what government is doing on our website. Where appropriate, we’ll send a protest letter, or work to develop other strategies to block or reverse closure.

Our e-mail is cjog@cjog.net.