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Knight Foundation survey shows increased student support for First Amendment

donal brown September 19, 2011

More students are supportive of the First Amendment than in past surveys with the percentage of students who believe the First Amendment goes too far in protecting rights declining from 45 percent in 2006 to 25 percent in 2011, according to a survey for the Knight Foundation by Dr. Kenneth Dautrich of The Pert Group. Students also showed increased support for free speech and press rights with greater numbers approving of “people should be allowed

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Opinion: Secrecy News challenges Obama assessment of open government gains

donal brown September 19, 2011

The Obama administration’s report on progress on transparency in the federal government contains some false information, misrepresentations, and omits some successes notably in limiting national security secrecy, writes Steven Aftergood in Secrecy News. Aftergood thinks that although some strides have been made in releasing data on government agencies through Data.gov, overall the report is not accurate or comprehensive enough, making it difficult to use it as a guide for future progress. -db From a commentary

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Obama admnistration cites transparency gains in report

donal brown September 19, 2011

The Obama administration released a report about their progress in increasing transparency. They cited increased grants of Freedom of Information Act requests; the declassification of sensitive data; and the use of technology to improve access to government spending and information on government agencies. The report was well-received by open government advocates, but they noted that much more needs to be done. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, September 16, 2011, by

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Free press advocate asks Supreme Court for ‘presumption of openness’ for court records

donal brown September 19, 2011

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has asked the Supreme Court to make every document in their court open to the public unless it designates otherwise. A New York Times editorial backs the suggestion noting that in the last 18 years the court has increased the practice of sealing records, a troubling trend. -db From an editorial in The New York Times, September 18, 2011. Full story

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Challenge mounted to removal of public database of doctor discipline and malpractice

donal brown September 19, 2011

Newspaper associations and public interest groups are protesting a move by the Obama administration to withhold a data bank created by Congress in 1986 to assist hospitals and state licensing boards to check doctor’s records for discipline and malpractice. The records had been useful in creating laws to protect the public as reported by Blythe Bernhard and Jeremy Kohler in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.”The Post-Dispatch used the public file last year in an investigation of

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