The president of SPJ Oregon talks about how the state’s restrictions on public health data make it more difficult to understand COVID, offers tips to new filers, and tells us about her favorite Magic-related records request.

Last Friday, MuckRock’s Sam Whitmore Media Survey Fellow Jessie Gomez joined us for our weekly Friday FOIA Chat on MuckRock’s Slack Channel. Gomez is currently working on building FOIA resources for researchers and journalists, and one of the problems she is looking to tackle is the complicated, varying, and often baseless FOIA fees. Here’s some strategies that came out of the conversation.

Emmy-award winning journalist Lynn Walsh joined us on MuckRock’s Slack channel last Friday, where she shared her advice on using FOIAs in an investigative piece.

The Society of Professional Journalists and MuckRock believe a journalist’s access to direct information from government employees is important. Lack of access, delayed access, and even blocked access impedes a journalist ability to do their job: to accurately, fairly and ethically inform the public.

David Cuillier is director of the University of Arizona journalism school, as well as president of the Society of Professional Journalists and author of the seminal public records how-to, “The Art of Access.” MuckRock caught up with the FOIA guru to talk about the future of access, bizarre denials and practical strategies for acquiring documents.