Publication Items

Local Authority Slaps Permits, Fees on Photography in Parks [1]

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 [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [3]
Natural Resources [4]
Policy [5]
Region:
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [6]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Local Authority Slaps Permits, Fees on Photography in Parks [1]
Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [8]

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 [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [9]
Policy [5]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Free Speech for Science Advisors? EPA Loosens the Leash [8]
J-Groups Call on Forest Service To Drop Permit Requirements [11]

A coalition of journalism groups, including SEJ, is calling on the U.S. Forest Service to make clear in its directives that journalists, documentarians, and media photographers do not need permits to take pictures in National Forest Wilderness or other public lands.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [9]
Forests [12]
Journalism & Media [3]
Policy [5]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about J-Groups Call on Forest Service To Drop Permit Requirements [11]
Chief Tidwell Directs Forest Service: No Permits, Fees for Journos [13]

"News coverage on [National Forest System] lands is protected by the Constitution," wrote U.S. Forest Service Chief Thomas L. Tidwell in a November 4, 2014, memo to agency leaders, "and it is our responsibility to safeguard this right on the lands we manage for all Americans. Journalists provide a critical public service, and this agency will ensure their access in the pursuit of that public service."
SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Forests [12]
Journalism & Media [3]
Laws & Regulations [14]
Natural Resources [4]
Policy [5]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Chief Tidwell Directs Forest Service: No Permits, Fees for Journos [13]
Congress Doesn't Want You To Read These Reports [15]

More evidence of Congress' ineffectiveness comes in its ongoing failure to keep its secrets actually secret. Its official policy is to keep the Congressional Research Service from publicly releasing the handy explainers it produces at taxpayer expense. Thanks again to the Federation of American Scientists' Government Secrecy Project for unauthorized publication of these reports.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Climate Change [16]
Disasters [17]
Economy & Business [18]
Energy & Fuel [19]
Government [20]
Health [21]
Laws & Regulations [14]
Policy [5]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Congress Doesn't Want You To Read These Reports [15]
Report Lists State Open Data Policies and Portals [22]

The federal government offers a launch pad for a range of journalistic projects, giving you one-click shopping for online state data portals where they exist. These portals bring together links to data from multiple agencies in a single state. Now, the nonprofit Center for Data Innovation has catalogued and rated state open-data policies.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [20]
Policy [5]
Region:
National (U.S.) [23]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Report Lists State Open Data Policies and Portals [22]
EPA Promises to Look into Muzzling of Advisory Panel Scientists [24]

In an August 15 email, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Chief of Staff Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming said EPA Science Advisor Bob Kavlock would review complaints from journalism (including SEJ) and open-government groups that scientists on EPA advisory panels were being told not to answer news-media or congressional inquiries without permission.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [20]
Policy [5]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about EPA Promises to Look into Muzzling of Advisory Panel Scientists [24]
EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [25]

Journalism and science groups, including SEJ, protested an August 12, 2014, "don't talk" memo from EPA's chief of staff. The memo makes it clear: members of the agency's many science advisory panels are not to talk to the news media or Congress without permission. Attached to the memo was an "EPA Policy" restricting communications between Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) committee members and parties outside EPA.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Environmental Politics [9]
Government [20]
Policy [5]
Science [10]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about EPA Muzzles Advisory Board Scientists [25]
Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [26]

Here are some recent explainers of interest to environmental journalists from the CRS, which Congress does not allow to be released to the taxpaying public who paid for them. The WatchDog thanks those who leaked them and the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Agriculture [27]
Chemicals [28]
Climate Change [16]
Economy & Business [18]
Energy & Fuel [19]
Laws & Regulations [14]
Natural Resources [4]
People & Population [29]
Policy [5]
Pollution [30]
Transportation [31]
Water & Oceans [32]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [26]
When Is a Policy Not a Policy? When Reporters Want To Talk to EPA Staff [33]

For some years now, under multiple administrations, journalists who have called EPA scientists and other experts asking to talk to them about matters large and small have almost universally been told something like, "I'm not allowed to talk to news media without Press Office permission." Yet EPA officials maintain they do not have a press policy. SEJ's WatchDog filed June 10, 2014 the first of what will be an ongoing series of FOIA requests to get to the bottom of this ironic situation.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [3]
Policy [5]
Visibility:
Public [7]
- Read more about When Is a Policy Not a Policy? When Reporters Want To Talk to EPA Staff [33]

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