Forty years after the law passed, limits on access to government documents are on the rise again.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, March 17, 2006

BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Journalists and other watchdogs for open government yesterday celebrated the 40th year of the Freedom of Information Act in glum fashion, lamenting what they view as an increase in official secrecy on many fronts.

"The government is systematically shutting down the tap, drying up the flow of information," said Hodding Carter III, a onetime newspaperman who served as President Jimmy Carter's assistant secretary of state.

Hodding Carter and more than a dozen other experts on access to government data spoke at a conference at the Freedom Forum, a group that advocates for free speech and related issues.

Several speakers charged that the Bush administration, already predisposed to restrict access to government, has used the struggle against terrorism as a cover for tightening the flow of information more than necessary.

But some argued that President Bush himself may have changed the tone by issuing an executive order late last year that charges government agencies with improving their service to citizens who seek documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

At the same time, some of the panelists lamented the lack of a central clearinghouse of statistics that make clear the pertinent trends in government handling of information.

But the speakers at yesterday's seminars -- and their organizations -- point to a wealth of anecdotal evidence that there is "an unrelenting, full-court assault" on openness in government, in Carter's words. Last year the government created 15.6 million new documents classified "secret." It created 11.2 million in the year before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to last year's "Secrecy Report Card" by OpenTheGovernment.org, an umbrella group of journalists, good-government groups and other self-styled secrecy watchdogs.

"While some increase in classification is to be expected in wartime," the report said, "this dramatic rise runs counter to the recommendations of the 9/11 commission" and others.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said she counted nearly 50 instances of subpoenas issued against reporters in recent months. "We have not seen numbers like that since the Nixon administration," she said.

Dalglish attributed a large fraction of that total to efforts of U.S. Attorneys under Mr. Bush to track down leaks in cases related to terrorism and the war in Iraq -- including the leak of the name of the onetime CIA agent Valerie Plame.

But she said another large source of subpoenas stems from a tactic by lawyers for government employees who have sued under the Privacy Act to claim damages from the leak of information about alleged misconduct. That trend is not attributable to the Bush administration, she said.

Dalglish and others warned that, for the first time, a pattern seems to be emerging of government efforts to sanction not only the leakers of secret information but also the journalists, lobbyists and others who might receive such leaks and pass them on to their audiences.

Michael German, a former FBI agent who served for several years during the 1990s in Providence, described how he had been retaliated against by superiors for reporting the falsification of records in a counterterrorism investigation.

German and other panelists in a discussion about whistleblowers said that there appears to be an increase in such retaliation.

On the other hand, "we are losing less badly" on some fronts in the battle for openness, said Andy Alexander, the Washington Bureau chief of Cox Newspapers, who heads the Freedom of Information Committee of a national editors group.

One report noted, for example, a series of federal court rulings that have shed light on U.S. treatment of detainees in the war on terror.

On the legislative front, several speakers alluded to efforts by Sen. John Cornyn, a conservative Texas Republican, to amend the FOIA to make it more effective.

Dalglish also said that the publicity about the spate of subpoenas of reporters and the jailing of Providence television reporter Jim Taricani, among other incidents, have revived some interest in a federal "shield" law to protect journalists from being forced to reveal their sources.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com / (202) 661-8423

BROWSE Journal stories focusing on open-government issues, learn more about the Freedom of Information Act, and find local open-government resources at:

http://projo.com/extra/2006/sunshineweek/