Publication Items

Following UN Morocco Climate Meeting from Home [1]

The Paris Agreement took effect Nov 4, followed by the start of the United Nations meeting on climate change this week in Marrakesh. Can't go in person, but still want to track the critical issues at stake? TipSheet offers a guide on how to report Marrakesh from home.

SEJ Publication Types:
TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Environmental Politics [5]
Government [6]
Journalism & Media [7]
Policy [8]
Region:
International [9]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about Following UN Morocco Climate Meeting from Home [1]
FOIA Policy: Many Journos Surveyed Say "Wait" Before "Release to All" [11]

A key issue on the Freedom of Information Act is once a government record is released to a single FOIA requester, should it then be automatically released to any other requester and the general public? "Yes" was the answer from most journalists surveyed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press — but with an important caveat. Image: © Clipart.com. [12]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [14]
Policy [8]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about FOIA Policy: Many Journos Surveyed Say "Wait" Before "Release to All" [11]
How Do We Know the Science Is Conflict-Free? [15]

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 [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [14]
Policy [8]
Science [16]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about How Do We Know the Science Is Conflict-Free? [15]
Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth [17]

Abrahm Lustgarten (left) wrote a nine-part series delving into farm subsidies and water policy. But his efforts to get the actual names of farm subsidy recipients or individual water users were largely thwarted. Read how info flows less quickly to the public than money and water flow to farmers in SPJ's FOI blog. Photo credit: Lars Klove.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [18]
Policy [8]
Water & Oceans [19]
Region:
California [20]
Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY) [21]
Southwest (AZ NM OK TX) [22]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about Lustgarten Says Data on Who Gets Ag Subsidies Is Rare as Hens' Teeth [17]
53 Journalism Groups Ask Obama To End Press Office Blockades [23]

SEJ, which has complained about press-office restrictions for years, joined over 50 other journalism groups in signing an Aug 10, 2015 letter requesting government transparency — again. The groups had sent a letter to the White House in July 2014, a followup in Aug 2014, resulting in a non-response response from the WH later that month.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [6]
Journalism & Media [7]
Policy [8]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about 53 Journalism Groups Ask Obama To End Press Office Blockades [23]
New York Times Editorial Calls for Release of CRS Reports [24]

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 [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Consumer [25]
Government [6]
Laws & Regulations [14]
Policy [8]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about New York Times Editorial Calls for Release of CRS Reports [24]
Florida Employee Sues over Right To Use "C-Word" (Climate) [26]

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), representing Florida Department of Environmental Protection employee Barton Bibler, is calling for an investigation by the DEP's Inspector General into whether the term "climate change" is actually forbidden to be used by state employees — and whether this violates Florida's open government law.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [3]
Environmental Politics [5]
Policy [8]
Region:
SE (AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN) [27]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about Florida Employee Sues over Right To Use "C-Word" (Climate) [26]
SEJ Appeals EPA Stonewalling of FOIA on Media Policy [28]

The U.S. EPA has been stonewalling a June 2014 SEJ request for documents describing its policies for dealing with news media. Now SEJ is appealing the long delay in responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by calling it what it is — a denial of information.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [5]
Government [6]
Policy [8]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about SEJ Appeals EPA Stonewalling of FOIA on Media Policy [28]
Local Authority Slaps Permits, Fees on Photography in Parks [29]

Professional photojournalists may again be facing unconstitutional requirements for permits to work in public parks — this time at the county level in a well-heeled District of Columbia suburb. But Virginia's Fairfax County Park Authority is encountering pushback as they conduct an annual review of their fee policies at various park units.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [7]
Natural Resources [30]
Policy [8]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [31]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about Local Authority Slaps Permits, Fees on Photography in Parks [29]
Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [32]

EPA has issued a "clarification" of its SAB scientist-muzzling policy, which acknowledges that SAB members are free to talk to reporters — mostly — as long as they are speaking for themselves. Still, the Society of Professional Journalists wrote EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy December 1 declaring their dissatisfaction with the clarification.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [13]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [5]
Policy [8]
Science [16]
Visibility:
Public [10]
- Read more about Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [32]

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