NASW Standards Call for Journalists to Have Direct Access to People in Federal Agencies

The National Association of Science Writers has released its Information Access Standards “to guide interactions between journalists and PIOs and sources at federal science agencies.”

Notably the standards say, “Journalists should have direct, unrestricted access to sources in the federal government.”

They also state, “PIOs and federal agencies should encourage direct and unfettered communication between journalists and scientists.”

The standards emerged from a one and half day summit held last October, participated in by both science journalists and PIOs. That was followed by a multi-step review and NASW board approval.

The process was guided in great part by Gabriel Popkin, a science journalist in the Washington, D.C., area and until recently head of the NASW. Popkin has said that there needs to be a push going forward to publicize and use the standards and to formally collect information on what is happening with access.

The standards make NASW one of the first journalists’ groups to, in essence, call for an end to the forced clearance through authorities of all contacts between journalists and employees.

In 2017 the Society of Professional Journalists called those policies censorship and a grave threat to public welfare.

(Full disclosure: I was involved in drafting both statements.)

The NASW standards further state, “Federal agencies should clearly inform scientists and other employees that they have a right to express their personal opinions, including to the media, without fear of retribution or punishment.”

That also is groundbreaking because many agencies have long said the reason people can’t speak, or that the agency must tell reporters who to talk to, is that source persons’ statements might not reflect the “coordinated” agency statement.