Publication Items

Canadian Government Drafts New 3-Year Open Government Plan [1]

Overall goals of the new draft plan are to make all government data and information open by default and to eliminate all fees except for an initial $5 filing fee. The Canadian government invites comments on the plan before June 30, 2016.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [3]
Region:
Canada [4]
Visibility:
Public [5]
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Some Steps Forward on Open Data [6]

Don't get us wrong: the U.S. federal government's openness to public scrutiny leaves much to be desired. Still, it's worth noting that some improvements have taken place. Here are a few prominent ones. Image: Clipart.com. [7]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Government [8]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Some Steps Forward on Open Data [6]
FAA Finally Legalizes Drone Journalism [9]

Journalism may finally be ready to stride into the brave new techno-world of drone reporting now that the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a regulation removing the previous cloud of illegality and uncertainty. It's just the beginning.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Journalism & Media [10]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about FAA Finally Legalizes Drone Journalism [9]
FOIA Improvement Bill Awaits Signature on Obama's Desk [11]

FOIA reform: it's all over but the shouting — and the implementation. The package of amendments to FOIA features codification of the "presumption of openness," would establish a single online federal portal for FOIA requests and strengthen the role of the Office of Government Information Services. Image: Clipart.com. [12]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Laws & Regulations [3]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about FOIA Improvement Bill Awaits Signature on Obama's Desk [11]
Lessons on Lead: Reporting on Drinking Water in Your Community [13]

For environmental and health reporters across the country, the crisis in Flint, Mich., highlighted a long-festering and much larger problem with lead-tainted water, spurring us to ask: What about other places? What about my city?

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders [14]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Lessons on Lead: Reporting on Drinking Water in Your Community [13]
Beyond the Query: Cultivating Relationships with Editors [15]

Freelancing isn’t all about writing good queries. It’s also about building and sustaining connections between human beings. Dawn Stover has been on both sides of the writer-editor relationship, and shares her lessons learned here.

SEJ Publication Types:
Freelance Files [16]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Beyond the Query: Cultivating Relationships with Editors [15]
The Subtle Art of Covering Climate Cycles [17]

In the new issue of SEJournal, Climate Central senior science writer John Upton explains the "lull" in global warming, what's really happening and the clearest way to report it.

SEJ Publication Types:
Backgrounders [14]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about The Subtle Art of Covering Climate Cycles [17]
SEJournal Summer 2016, Vol. 26 No. 2 [18]

In this issue: Journalism remains a noble endeavor; language of the global warming 'lull'; your reporting, critiqued; Q&A on Exxon exposé; lessons on lead; collaborators chronicle destruction and hope; waypoints in a photographic life; chasing atoms on nuclear energy beat; cultivating relationships with editors; the truth about teaching; BookShelf.

SEJ Publication Types:
SEJournal Online [19]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about SEJournal Summer 2016, Vol. 26 No. 2 [18]
LWCF Grants Database a Boon for Environmental Reporters [20]

The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which takes money the feds get from offshore drilling and parcels it out to federal, state and local agencies for parks and conservation land, is a goldmine for environmental stories by enterprising reporters. And now InvestigateWest, a non-profit watchdog journalism outlet, has made LWCF sleuthing easier by compiling an easy-to-use database of LWCF grants made between 1965 and 2011.

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Natural Resources [21]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about LWCF Grants Database a Boon for Environmental Reporters [20]
Read the Secret TTIP Trade Treaty Here [22]

The draft Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaty is still being kept secret from the hundreds of millions of people whom it will affect. It matters for environmental journalists as trade treaties often set up mechanisms for corporations to negate the environmental laws of signatory countries. Image: WikiLeaks. [23]

SEJ Publication Types:
WatchDog TipSheet [2]
Topics on the Beat:
Economy & Business [24]
Laws & Regulations [3]
Visibility:
Public [5]
- Read more about Read the Secret TTIP Trade Treaty Here [22]

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