{
  "id": "2006-november-december-on-the-foia-front",
  "slug": "2006-november-december-on-the-foia-front",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-november-december-on-the-foia-front.html",
  "year": 2006,
  "month": "November • December",
  "monthNum": 11,
  "headline": "On the FOIA front",
  "kicker": "INSIDE NICAR",
  "author_name": "David Herzog",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "NICAR and Missouri School of Journalism",
  "summary": "David Herzog discusses how journalists successfully use FOIA to uncover critical data from federal agencies, despite increased secrecy.",
  "keywords": [
    "FOIA",
    "transparency",
    "federal government"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Government & Politics",
    "Journalism & Newsroom"
  ],
  "technologies": [],
  "full_text": "In the previous issue of Uplink, journalists wrote about how they obtained data from the federal government and analyzed it for their stories about the U.S. military. A common thread that ran through the articles was the authors' use of the Freedom of Information Act to get data from federal agencies. The requests yielded data about civilian complaints against soldiers in Iraq, mental health referrals for service members and disparities in veterans' disability payments. In the latter case, the former Knight Ridder Washington bureau had to sue the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. But the shared theme here is that journalists can use FOIA successfully. That should be heartening news for journalists doing computer-assisted reporting. Despite the federal government's clampdown on information since 9/11, some journalists are persistent enough to get the data for stories that inform the public about those sent to war. Let's hope these FOIA experiences encourage even more of us to use this essential, but underused, tool. Contact David Herzog by e-mail at dherzog@nicar.org.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1999-december-successful-e-foia",
      "score": 0.339
    },
    {
      "slug": "1996-november-ready-aim-foia",
      "score": 0.277
    },
    {
      "slug": "1994-november-history-federal-computer-use",
      "score": 0.265
    },
    {
      "slug": "1999-december-federal-data-fights",
      "score": 0.252
    },
    {
      "slug": "1996-november-uplink-update",
      "score": 0.245
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-november-december-on-the-foia-front.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-november-december-on-the-foia-front.json"
}