ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIETY-OF-PROFESSIONAL-JOURNALISTS ON RECEIPT OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT AWARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00364R001502640007-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 30, 2008
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: January 27, 1983
• Content Type: REPORT

ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIETY,'
OF--PROF SSIO TS
ON REC fi 0 HE FIRST"AMENDMENT-AWARD:
JANUARY 27., 1983
It is a great pleasure to be here today and a great honor
to receive this award from a group whose efforts I respect so
deeply. ?To me the working of the city room of a newspaper. is
the heartbeat of our democracy.
much worse.- We have of live with the policies.
crippled. -.
It is truly sad that the President's most profound statement
to date on openness in government appeared a short time ago in
one statement: "I've had it up to my keister with these leaks."
I know it must be. terrible to have your policies leaked to
the press.in advance, but his problems aren't really so bad.
He has to live with a lot of leaks. Some of us feel we have it
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a year when it will become' something of a
re facin
W
g
e a
cliche to discuss whether the government and technology will
.prevail over the individual mind and human spizit.
I can note with great satisfaction that 1584-,will not mark
the beginning of Big Brother and the end of free expression, but
rather the. tenth anniversary of :'amendments -.to FOIA? securing. in
practice rights that had been established in theory eight years
earlier.
So--important has. _the- Freedom of Information Act-become in
an age when complexity can make secrecy pose as a virtue, that it
is difficult forme, to remember that FOIA is only a statute and not
a. part of the Constitution. But the Act is-only another statute
on the books, and the-current Administration has-.- given ample warning
that 3 it%-is:-one,statute-;, t.-would ilike-tto, see weakened : or: evens""'
President Reagan would be in a lot better.frame of mind
if he understood that FOIA strengthens the people. 's - faith-in,
their- government. This one Act has proved to be an invaluable
tool for turning government .accountability from a catchphrase
to a reality.. It has led to pub lic-:disclosure=of -government wast_ e
and wrongdoing, as well as expanding--public knowledge, of health, f
safety and environmental matters. Through FOIA, the press revealed
discrimination in the administration of federal contracts, major
medicare fraud by private health organizations, defective and
unsafe consumer products, and harmful drugs and medical devices.
But FOIA is more than the sum of its specific achievements.,,,
It puts a mammoth government on the same plane as any citizen. serves. ' It makes available to that citizen
the '
deal with the complexity of government
and purposes.: The;=Act is one of .the most stabilizing
forces in our democracy. It is nQ t-to =be:-tampered withcasually.:
In the 97th Congress the Reagan Administration, along with
its Senate allies, presented the Congress with a set of proposals
which would have gutted the Act. Working with a broad coalition
of public interest groups -- and with special help from the press
groups -- I was able to convince my colleagues on the Senate
Judiciary Committee to accept a substitute for the Reagan-Hatch
bill which left the essential features of the law intact. Once
that substitute was accepted, those whose agenda was to destroy,
and not improve the Act, lost interest. .
But if I was unconvinced by-President Reagan's arguments on
amending FOIA, I'll admit that his actions have done a good job'
of convincing, where his words have failed. I now agree that FOIA'
needs to be amended. It needs to be more resistent to obstruction-
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from within:rby, a government -hos tile:z.,to its-purposes
-Administration bill.
? The Department of Justice recently adopted a stringent --
perhaps I should say stingy -- policy on fee waivers, after the
Senate Judiciary, Committee rejected a similar proposal in the
? EPA has undertaken a policy -to restrict the release of
industry data that would help expose pesticide threats to workers
and others, after the House rejected a similar proposal and
Senator Helms failed in his ,effort to include it in legislation
before the Senate.
I
? President Reagan's Executive Order on-classification-swept
away a.trend of.;nearly.three decades aimed, at-'better informing the.
American-public-about=national-defense and foreign-policy: issues.
More than any one of these examples, I am concerned that all
of them together reflect..a policy-:that.promDtes:.secrecy- as the.norm
dominating.transactions -with"the government: - It.was not a momentary
lapse when former Secretary of Health and Human Services Schweiker
faced with a mountain of public criticism on the so-called birth
control squeal' rule threatened to repeal an agency procedure
instituted by Elliott Richardson promoting free and open comment.
While this doesf not concern FOIA, it reflects the same penchant:?for
actionLout^s-of the-.view~.of=public'-scrutiny that made. FOIA necessary.
1983;" and I truly hope that the word "improvement" will not bear
the ironic tinge that characterized so many "improvement" bills
in the 97th Congress.
The Congress did'not take action on any FOIA bill 'in the
97th Congress, and I think that the- 98th.. Congress--is--ready=-for-
an_-.affirmrativen:FOIA"bilk, notes just.~a--response4-t.o-legislation
designed->to'limit_ access ?I ' 11., be= introducing...a- bill.-to.. amend.
_t ei Act entitled"The Free m-of -Information... Improvement-Act~, of
-Briefly :my,:bill-would do the following:
? The- fee waiver -standard: will be strengthened for members
of the news media, nonprofit groups who intend to make the infor-
mation available to the public, and persons engaged in non-commercial
h
l
l
.
y researc
ar
scho
? Requesters-will be able to challenge a denial of-:a -
waiver.-in court under a standard which permits the court to take a
fresh look at whether the waiver standard has been met.
? Time-limits will be made.-.enforceable by creating economics
penalties for an agency that does not meet the time limits, while
giving economic incentives for timely compliance.
? The tide of special interest withholding statutes we have
seen recently will be".stemmed by requiring that new-withholding
statutes come before"the-Senate Judiciary-- Committee-- and=-House, Govern-
ments Operations-Committee-,- which have legislative Jurisdiction
? . The-delicate balance= -between the- national., s ecurity..and_.the.
need to know will be restored by requiring agencies to consider-
whether the need to protect. classified national defense. and- foreign
policy-information-outweighs-the-public-.-interest- in'disclosure-.
Senator- Durenberger- and .1 introduced this._proposal .in the last-.
Congress,. to :. continue.::to work with him and -my other.
colleagues..on,the._Senate_..Intelligence Committee .-to- ensure- that-we-car
restore a presumption of_ openness_.while at the- same-time - strengthenii
the protection required for documents which legitimately require
classification'on security grounds.. .
These changes will make disclosure under FOIA fairer,
faster, and more certain.
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And yes, there are some..change s?,that:should.,be_.-made.?to-FOIA
because it isn't working as well and as fairly as it should.
? The protection'.of'law--enforcemeritz information sources
can be strengthened.
? Fair procedures to allow submitters of information a
reasonable opportunity to-object. to. release of data must be %
established. This change would benefit submitters, requesters,
and the agency involved.
? Commercial users, who account for two-thirds of the costs
to the government in processing FOIA requests,-?.must bear-their fair
share?-for. access..
? Agency time. limits. under.. FOIA-should be jnade more-realistic
and enforced..more.-vigorously: '
Perhaps in. the longer run the most serious problems with
FOIA will, be to reconcile its 'vital purposes with the growing
threat to personal privacy evident everywhere. in our culture, as
a direct consequence of the information technology revolution.
Increasingly ,- the government has been. breaking-down the legal'
and policy barriers designed to stop the use of one set of computer
information collected by the government for a different purpose.
Computer matching has become the favorite law enforcement tool.
of the Reagan Administration.
What. we-'are witnessing is a trend toward making government
information ...less_accessible--to- citizens,,,:.and--informationi-about_ .
citizens _more--accessible to government and- businesses-.- If infor-
mation is properly gathered and maintained, there is little
potential for abuse of the privacy right in the Freedom of Infor-
mation.Act. But I have little reason to be complacent about the
treatment of privacy within government, and consequently the
two important rights will have to be scrutinized together as-we
venture headlong into the.age of the computer-chip.
In the coming years, you in the press will have to convince
the wider community that you have carefully measured your need for
access against the right of individual privacy. And all of us
concerned with the future of FOIA must be equally vigilant in
preventing the-advocacy of privacy from serving as an excuse to
hobble openness. .
In closing I can think of no more appropriate words. than those
used by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 89th Congress in
reporting the original Freedom of Information, Act: ?
'*-.A,- government-by :secrecy...benefits._no -one. .
? It injures the people it seeks to serve; it injures
its. own integrity and .operation.
? It breeds mistrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens,
and mocks their-
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