Martha Mendoza, AP Review: Gov't Reducing Access to Info, Associated Press, March 14, 2005. Excerpt: 'Since 1998, many federal departments have been reducing the amount of information they release to the public — even as the government fields and answers more requests for information than ever, an Associated Press review has found. The locations of stores and restaurants that have received recalled meat, the names of detainees held by the U.S. overseas and details about Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 energy policy task force are all among the records that the government isn't sharing with the public. The tightening began even before the Sept. 11 attacks, and now government defenders say the nation needs protection from its enemies in the war on terror. But open government advocates worry that U.S. citizens' freedom is eroding with every file they can't access. "This is an immensely troubling clampdown," said Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy Project. "The law itself is unchanged, but it's being interpreted more broadly to withhold more information."...States all have their own public records laws, and have closely followed the federal government's lead. Since Sept. 11, 2001, at least 20 states have proposed new laws to control public records, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. These changes mostly try to prevent terrorists from seeing evacuation, emergency and security plans. But in the process, limits are being placed on everything from birth and death records to architectural and engineering drawings of public buildings, said Davis, at the University of Missouri-Columbia....Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, introduced a bill in February that would significantly reform federal FOIA laws, requiring agencies to give people seeking documents a tracking number that could be checked online. The bill also aims to reduce the kinds of excuses the government can give for refusing to release material.' (Thanks to ResourceShelf.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/15/2005 10:50:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
