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Transparency

  1. November 19, 2009 10:18 AM

    Senate Judiciary Considers Shield Bill, Live!

    By Clint Hendler

    Click the play button below to see my live tweets as the Senate considers the Free Flow of Information Act. You can stream the hearing live at the Senate Judiciary site.

    The hearing has ended, but you can still read the once-live tweets from me and the Society of Professional Journalists below.

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  2. November 17, 2009 02:04 PM

    CJR on The Radio

    By Clint Hendler

    This morning, I was a guest on The Exchange, a New Hampshire Public Radio talk show. Up for discussion was the contemporary legal landscape as the First Amendment and shield laws meet the internet age.

    The Granite State has been hosting one such clash, as CJR noted in April, after a mortgage company based there...

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  3. November 12, 2009 09:28 AM

    A Shield for Bloggers?

    Just who is a journalist today?

    By Clint Hendler

    It’s been a long, winding journey for the shield law. But the bill, which would provide journalists with some protection from being forced to testify in federal cases, has never appeared closer to becoming a reality than it does today.

    On March 31, the House of Representatives passed a version of the Free Flow of Information Act—the shield...

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  4. November 04, 2009 04:01 PM

    Waiting on the Shield Law

    By Clint Hendler

    The Society of Professional Journalists has just put out a press release announcing their backing (with some reservations) of the shield law compromise worked out last week between the White House and the bill’s prime Senate sponsors. From the statement:

    Although SPJ does not believe S. 448 is a perfect bill, the Society’s leaders carefully...

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  5. October 30, 2009 06:38 PM

    Compromise Reached on Senate Shield Law

    Q&A with Newspaper Association of America's Paul Boyle

    By Clint Hendler

    Today the prime Senate sponsors of the Free Flow of Information Act—or, as it’s commonly known, the shield bill—announced that they’d reached a compromise with the White House on the bill’s most contentious issues: who would be considered a journalist, and just how much protection journalists would get from subpoenas demanding testimony.

    The compromise bill’s definition of who is...

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  6. October 30, 2009 01:00 PM

    Shield Bill Deal Reached?

    By Clint Hendler

    The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Chuck Schumer, a prime sponsor of the Free Flow of Information Act (commonly known as the shield bill) has reached a deal with the White House on one of the bill’s most difficult sticking points: under what circumstances, and how, would the executive branch be able compel testimony from someone covered by the...

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  7. October 29, 2009 05:17 PM

    Guess Who?

    Wash Times highlights limits of Obama visitor disclosure policy

    By Clint Hendler

    Yesterday, The Washington Times reported some none-too-flattering revelations suggesting a pay-to-play scheme inside the Obama White House.

    According to documents acquired by the Times, donors who raise more than $300,000 for Democratic campaigns are rewarded with participation in bimonthly phone calls with senior administration officials, along with occasional face to face meetings and briefings. Matthew Mosk, the article’s...

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  8. October 07, 2009 06:04 PM

    Do or Die for the Shield Law?

    By Clint Hendler

    Shortly after 9:30 am tomorrow, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will take their seats in room 226 of the Dirksen building. First they’ll consider the nominations of half dozen federal judges and law enforcement officials.

    And then they will get to work on the Free Flow of Information Act—a bill that could either help end unnecessary and chilling journalist...

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  9. October 06, 2009 03:53 PM

    How to Get on the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’s Enemies List

    By Clint Hendler

    From Wired:

    When 22-year-old programmer Aaron Swartz decided last fall to help an open-government activist amass a public and free copy of millions of federal court records, he did not expect he’d end up with an FBI agent trying to stake out his house.

    As the piece goes on to describe, the FBI launched its investigation...

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  10. October 02, 2009 10:12 AM

    A Change That’s Hard to Believe In

    Obama calls backsies on shield law

    By Clint Hendler

    There’s a reason why people don’t trust politicians’ promises: from time to time, they go back on them.

    That’s exactly what seems to be happening this week, as the Obama administration has communicated to Capitol Hill that the administration will only support the Free Flow of Information act—a bill colloquially known as the shield law—if legislators make major...

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  11. October 01, 2009 01:38 PM

    A win against Cheney secrecy

    By Clint Hendler

    Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington has notched another win in its battle to preserve and expand the reach of the Freedom of Information Act. The victory comes in a complicated case seeking records related to a FBI interview voluntarily given by Vice President Cheney during special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation of l’affaire Plame/Libby.

    FOIA provides an exemption allowing...

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  12. October 01, 2009 11:50 AM

    Obama Administration Opposing Shield Law

    By Clint Hendler

    Disappointing news today from the New York Times’s Charlie Savage:

    The Obama administration has told lawmakers that it opposes legislation that could protect reporters from being imprisoned if they refuse to disclose confidential sources who leak material about national security, according to several people involved with the negotiations.

    The administration this week sent to Congress sweeping revisions...

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  13. September 30, 2009 10:11 AM

    FOIA Hearing Underway

    By Clint Hendler

    Senator Patrick Leahy has just kicked off a hearing on the status of the Freedom of Information Act, which is being webcast live on the Judiciary Committee's website.

    Starting off will be a two person panel, with appearances by an associate attorney general representing the Justice Department, and, I think, the first hearing appearance by Miriam...

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  14. September 29, 2009 04:44 PM

    Classification policy draft leaked

    By Clint Hendler

    Secrecy watcher Steven Aftergood has obtained a draft version of the Obama administration’s new executive order tinkering with the nation’s classification system. (Downloadable here as a .pdf)

    As Aftergood writes, the draft “does not represent anything like a transformation of the existing secrecy system,” though he highlights some steps that the access community would likely view...

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