Resources on Constraints on Reporting, Gag Rules, Censorship by PIO, etc.

Below are resources on the constraints on reporting, gag rules, censorship by PIO, etc.

-- Last year 25 journalism and other groups wrote to the Biden Administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy asking for elimination of such restrictions in the federal government and for restoring journalists' access to agencies.

--The extensive legal analysis from The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information finds that these constraints, although very common, are unconstitutional and that many courts have agreed with that. The longer version is a legal brief.

--As the Covid death toll mounted in 2020, for instance, CDC told their media relations staff to remember that just because reporters persist in asking to talk to someone in the agency that doesn’t mean they have to be allowed to.

--The Society of Professional Journalists has said the controls are censorship and authoritarian.

--“Editor and Publisher” featured the issue in October, 2021.

-- The Yale Law School Access and Accountability Conference last October had a “Fighting Censorship by PIO” session. (The agenda is here and the PIO papers [Foxhall and LoMonte] are here. The video is here, session number 5.)

--In 2019 there was legislation in Congress with a provision to allow federal scientists to talk to reporters without prior approval. The provision was killed in committee.

--A recent webinar, “The Gagging of America,” from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, has a discussion with First Amendment Attorney Frank LoMonte on blockages in both the public and private sector.

--Last year the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency affirmed that it would continue these controls.

--Kathryn Foxhall’s blog as other information.