RSSFOIA Friday: No more “May” puns, dammit!
May 13
Uncategorized AP, DHS, FOI, FOI Friday, FOIA, FOIA Friday, Liberal, New Democrat, O CANADA, OBL, Osama bin Laden, Whistleblower No Comments
This week’s FOIA Friday’s a little shorter than usual because I have to head off to opening night of the production of Hamlet I’m in as soon as I finish. Worry not, however, because it’s still chock full of good information! Basically everything we’re looking at can be found here anytime you like, and if you have any suggestions, please do send them on over to tips@muckrock.com.
Now to the news:
Top lawmaker protests ‘whistle-blower’ demotion: From AP writer Ted Bridis come the opening chapters of what is sure to be a long fight. After Catherine Papoi, the former deputy unit chief in charge of the Freedom of Information Act for the DHS, reported to an internal whistleblower organization that political appointees were interfering in the FOI process, she was demoted and stripped of her title. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has called for Papoi to be given her job back, and for the DHS to remind their employees of their whistleblowing rights. The DHS does not consider Papoi to have been demoted because she has not taken a pay grade hit, and they deny all allegations that the change in status was a move of revenge.
If FOIA Request Is Successful, AP Says It Will Decide Which OBL Pictures the Public Will See: From Newsbusters.org, a watchdog site that aims to “expose Liberal bias”, writer Tom Blumer cries foul at the AP’s proposed procedure if their request for the death photos of Osama Bin Laden is fulfilled. AP’s Michael Oreskes has stated, in an interview with The Atlantic, that the AP will “decide what’s publishable and what’s not publishable based on the possibly (sic) that it’s inflammatory.” Blumer is rightfully confused; if the AP objects to the government withholding the pictures, why should they be able to choose what’s shown and what isn’t? Other considerations must enter the discussion, too, if I may inject my own opinion: what if the images are gruesome? Or too numerous to place in an article? The government should simply make the images available to all who want to see them.
Ontario Liberals ‘interfering’ with freedom of information: Opposition: And now for our dosage of foreign news: from the far white wastes of Ontario comes a new political controversy centering around impeded FOI requests. The New Democratic party, currently the opposition, filed a FOI request to discover how their other FOI requests had been handled—always a good idea for those of you taking notes on good requests to file—and discovered that requests from the opposition party were being flagged by Liberal staffers as “contentious”. The New Democrats argue that this indicates a politicization of the FOI process, which is death to fair practice. Liberal Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, however, asserts that the flagging “. . .has no bearing in law or regulation. We see hundreds of things every day and (it means) look at this carefully, it’s contentious, and that’s it.”
See you all next week with a full length FOIA Friday post, and remember: when your murderous, incestuous uncle-king invites you to duel someone. . . it’s probably not just because he wants to see you show off your swordplay.
