Seven federal agencies announced a trial program to publish documents in response to a preponderance of online Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The program known as “Release-to-One is Release-to-All” means that the release of information from FOIA requests will be open to the public. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, July 9, 2015, by Adam Marshall)
For the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), July 20, 2015, Meg Lentz writes in praise of the program but suggests that there should be a lag in releasing information to the public so that investigative journalists can benefit from their work.
One of the agencies in the program the Justice Department said they are taking no position on the issue of releasing documents to requesters before the public receives them. Justice Department spokesperson Melanie Ann Pustay said, “In practical terms, there will usually be some lag time between the time that records are turned over to the original requester, and when they can be scanned and coded for posting. But this is certainly an area we want to study, collect data on and get feedback from outside stakeholders, including journalists.” (freedomofinfo.org, July 21, 2015)