BALANCING CITIZENS' NEED TO GOVERNMENT'S NEED TO CREATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200940003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: December 4, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200940003-3
A TICLE AF?EA_R D
1 T
Issue and Debate
NEW YORK TIMES
4 DECEMBER 1981
&lanczrtg Citizens '14leed to I
Go vernm ent's.~e e'd to Cre a
By JONATHAN FRIENDLY
How much is a citizen entitled to
know about how the Federal Govern-
ment works? Which of its records may
the Government justifiably keep se-
cret?
Since 1974, the answers to these
questions have been specified in the
Freedom of Information Act, widely
described as a landmark piece of legis-
lation that put teeth into a decade4ong
effort to insure that most Government
files would be open to the public In the
last several months the Reagan Ad-
ministration and a group of senators
have proposed broad changes in the
act to create new restrictions on the
availability of certain information,
particularly in areas of law enforce-
ment, intelligence and business regtr
lation.
Those proposals have started a new
debate over the proper balance be.
tween demands forapernreess and the
need for secrecy. which often conflict
At the heart of the debate- is-a philo? -
sophic disagreement over the validity
of what one Government study of the
act termed "the presumption that the
Government and the information of
government belong to the people."
The Background
Like other organizations, governs.
meats find it is easier when their deci-
sions are not subject to challenge or
seccnd-guessing. Keeping private the they believe the act means the ages. Food and Drug Administration and the
documents on which decisions are des cannot keep their names secret. Federal Trade Commission to find out
based helps reduce thechallenges. They do not contend that secrets what their competitors are doing. The
Since the earliest years-of the reprb. have routinely been disclosed, but law "was not intended to provide the
lic, rules about. what_kir 4 4 of govern. rather that there is . a "perception" K.G.B. or a German industrialist with
melt records the public,= %dd ask for abroad that such disclosures are inevi- information about the United States."
and get evolved from laws on adminis- table with the law written as it is. That said Jonathan C. Rose, Assistant At-
trative practice that were primarily pcsitieo has been bolstered by various torney General for legal policy. The
designed to help accomplish the ages. books and magazines based on public Administration bill would exempt
ties' "housekeeping" tasks. Those records that have disclosed the names commercial or financial information it
rules tended to legitimize the bureau- , of American agents abroad. To re. disclosure "may impair" business in-
cratic impulse to say -w... verse the apprehensions abroad, the terests. .
As the Federal Government grew agencies say, their records should be . . All the agencies complain that the
after World War II, Congress increas-. exempted entirely from any forced I volume of requests puts heavy and.
ingly discovered it needed access to disciosura. This is a position the Ad- costly demands on their staffs even be-
administrative files. In 1958. legisla. ministration supports but it is scbed- fore a decision can be made on the
tion sponsored by Representative John uled to be debated separately from the Propriety of releasing the files. The
Moss." Democrat of California. and otherproposals to change the act. . bill would allow the agencies to charge
Senator Thomas Hernnings. Democrat The act permits judicial review of r more for searching and duplicating
of Missouri, shifted the emphasis to. decisions to withhold security fakes. a files. a change that is supported by the
ward broadened, availability. of ? pro ision that would be limited under opp~anents of broader amendments,
records. But many departments can. . the Administration proposals. In the - . . ,
tinued to follow the more restrictive most recent well-publicized case in. Administrative Procedures Act. which ~'Ql''I1~r7jD
allowed withholding of docam~mts
when secrecy was **in the public Inter-
In 1968, Congress enacted the tree`
dom of Information Act, widely re-
ferred to by its initials, F.O.I.A. For
the first time, this act said that any
person was entitled to most identifia-
.ble records without having to give a
reason. While it established certain
categories of exempt records, the act
reversed for most of the bureaucracy a
long-held presumption, placing on the
Government agency the burden of
proving that it was entitled to withhold)
a requested file.
-Eight years later Congress, sensi
tized by the Watergate scandals to the
possibility that Government officials!
volvin
uphek
a for
noted:
soviet:
waste
jury tc
cess nn
Law
the Ft
but als _
Service and the Drug Enforcement
Administration. contend that crimi-
nals have used the act to get records on
investigations. They say that the indi-
ict
l
d
i
b
ua
recor
s are
nnocuous,
ut that
might use the stamp of "national se. v
curity" to conceal records of illegal or they can be put together in ways that
hint at investigative methods and the
venal behavior
amended th
t t
,
e ac
o
create new protections against the ar- identities of informers. William
bitrary closing of files. The amend-, Webster, the director of the F.B.I.,.
meats were enacted over the veto of said Joanne Chederof , a convicted
President Ford. murderer and leatr of militants, had
obtained 1,700 pages of documents that
ForRestnctloas may nave neipea net slues recapture
after her escape from a New Jersey
Even ' before ' President Reagan's , prison.
election. a variety of Government The agencies say the Attorney Gen. {
agencies and private groups began era) should decide whether to withhold
asking for changes in the act. Part of nx records on terrorism, organized crime
-the pressure came from the intelii- and foreign counter-intelligence and
gene community, the Central Intelli- ; that they should be allowed to keep se-
genoe, National Security and Defense cret records that would "tend" to dis-
Intelligence agencies in particular. In close the identity of sources.
Senate subcommittee hearings and in . In recent years, business has be.'
public speeches, they have argued that = come the most frequent user of the act.
STAT
STAT
?`'"n?I'Mra Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/01 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200940003-3 -