We’re midway through Sunshine Week 2010, sponsored by the American Society of News Editors. But in a week dedicated to promoting all things transparency, the news so far has been anything but bright.
The Associated Press is reporting that, despite directives from President Obama, the federal government has become less transparent, not more.
The new AP audit cites a “review of annual Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reports filed by 17 major agencies,” which found the government used legal exemptions to withhold information from the public at a much greater rate in FY 2009 versus FY 2008.
Agencies cited the FOIA’s nine exemptions “at least 466,872 times in budget year 2009, compared with 312,683 times the previous year.”
Another audit, conducted by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, also found the federal government’s transparency efforts to be lacking.
The GWU audit’s key findings included:
– A severe backlog in FOIA requests, with some requests dating back 18 years;- Only 13 of 90 agencies in the audit had documented concrete changes to the improve their FOIA practices; – Just four federal agencies, including the Justice Department, showed both an increase in information released and a decrease in information withheld.
Clearly, as these two reports show, more work that needs to be done – especially at the federal level – before the public’s right to know is secure.
– James Quintero