Publication Items

Are There Limits to FOIA Access to Research E-Mails? [1]

A war has broken out over academic emails — a war seemingly between academic freedom and the public's right to know. The smoking emails have prompted scandals galore, and produced stories. The issue got an airing in a plenary session October 9, 2015, at SEJ's Annual Conference. The WatchDog has details.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Studies [3]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Science [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Are There Limits to FOIA Access to Research E-Mails? [1]
Groups' Efforts for Disclosure of Pesticide "Inerts" Grinds On [7]

Whether pesticides harm the birds and bees — or human health — matters a lot. One of the public's protections is the requirement for disclosure in the nation's pesticide laws. Three groups, represented by Earthjustice, argue that EPA has authority under current federal pesticide law to require disclosure of inert ingredients.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Chemicals [8]
Environmental Health [9]
Health [10]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Groups' Efforts for Disclosure of Pesticide "Inerts" Grinds On [7]
How Do We Know the Science Is Conflict-Free? [11]

Disclosure issues have been in the news of late — especially the war over research on genetically modified organisms. Now journalist Sara Reardon, in Nature News & Comment, has taken a deep look at disclosure policies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [4]
Policy [12]
Science [5]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about How Do We Know the Science Is Conflict-Free? [11]
Food Industry Heavyweights Spend Big To Lobby Against Transparency [13]

The battleground over transparency on food origins and ingredients is much wider than labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, as journalist Elizabeth Grossman points out in a recent piece in Civil Eats.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [14]
Food [15]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Food Industry Heavyweights Spend Big To Lobby Against Transparency [13]
Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [16]

The Center for Food Safety has sued the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Freedom of Information Act for withholding information on genetically modified crops (GMOs), after unsuccessfully seeking information over a period of 13 years.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [17]
Environmental Health [9]
Food [15]
Health [10]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Food Safety Group Sues Ag Department for FOIA'd Records on GMO Crops [16]
Still Interested? Some Feds Hope You Will Give Up on FOIA Requests [18]

Federal agencies sometimes wait years to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, then ask if they are still interested in receiving the requested information. Now the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy has issued an official "guidance" that frowns slightly on overuse of the "still interested?" practice.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [19]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Still Interested? Some Feds Hope You Will Give Up on FOIA Requests [18]
Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional [20]

"The facts show the state's purpose in enacting the statute was to protect industrial animal agriculture by silencing its critics," district Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote. Sometimes investigative journalists need to go undercover. And sometimes muckraking journalists need undercover whistleblowers to tip them to abuses.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Activism [21]
Agriculture [17]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Region:
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [22]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho "Ag-Gag" Law as Unconstitutional [20]
Filming in Parks and Forests: The Alaskan Angle [23]

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (pictured) has proposed a bill that would (among other things) set a flat $200 annual fee to permit unlimited shooting by small film crews. Now E&E Daily reports Murkowski's filmmaker nephew faced the fees-and-permits barrier when he wanted to shoot near her father's home, surrounded by the Tongass National Forest.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [24]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Natural Resources [25]
Region:
National (U.S.) [26]
Alaska and Hawaii [27]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Filming in Parks and Forests: The Alaskan Angle [23]
Secret Congressional Background Reports Leak Again; Debate Continues [28]

Here are some recently leaked CRS reports of relevance to environmental journalists, as well as the latest on the debate following the NYT editorial calling for the reports to be made public.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Biodiversity [29]
Climate Change [30]
Health [10]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Nuclear Power & Radiation [31]
Water & Oceans [32]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about Secret Congressional Background Reports Leak Again; Debate Continues [28]
New York Times Editorial Calls for Release of CRS Reports [33]

The WatchDog has long whined about Congress' mystifying refusal to let taxpayers read Congressional Research Service reports the taxpayers have paid for. A June 17, 2015, editorial in the New York Times called the situation "absurd," expressing hope that a new director of the Library of Congress (home of the CRS) would manage to get the policy changed.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [14]
Government [19]
Laws & Regulations [4]
Policy [12]
Visibility:
Public [6]
- Read more about New York Times Editorial Calls for Release of CRS Reports [33]

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