A battered FOIA collides with the $2 trillion bailout

By Mya Frazier, Columbia Journalism Review, Apr. 20, 2020

There is, of course, never a good time for a pandemic. But the Freedom of Information Act is weaker than it has ever been. A Supreme Court decision in 2019, described by some media law scholars as a “downward spiral toward secrecy,” will make it difficult for the media to fully investigate conflicts of interest and corruption within the stimulus aid package.

FOIA lawsuits, which according to media lawyers can range in cost from $10,000 to $80,000, were already financially untenable, especially for local media outlets. In a 2016 Knight Foundation survey of news leaders, 53 percent said their news organizations weren’t prepared to go to court to fight First Amendment violations, with nine out of ten blaming their reluctance on a lack of money. Such hesitation has consequences: research shows the mere threat of litigation increases agency compliance with foia requests. “There was a time when local media companies owned the atmosphere and carried the ball on foia,” says David Cuillier, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Arizona, who has published widely on the history of foia case law and is president of the board of directors at the National Freedom of Information Coalition. “They’ve just all kind of stopped filing lawsuits.” 

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