More from 2008 FOI Summit

A former USA Today reporter facing fines for failing to reveal her sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks said Saturday that news organizations need to go on the offensive in the fight to protect the First Amendment.

"As we all know, the news business is on a collective nervous breakdown," Toni Locy told a coalition of open-government and press groups. "It's time to stop running. It's time to turn and fight. If we don't fight for the First Amendment, who will?"

Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, spoke at the annual convention of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

She said the country needs a shield law that would protect reporters from having to reveal their sources.

"The First Amendment needs some help," she said. "In this environment that we're in now, it needs some help."

More here.

NFOIC FOI Summit '08 Is In the Books...

What a great time we had in Philly! Some coverage of Ted Gup's excellent keynote address, which we hope to have on the site soon...

Journalists need to do a better job of explaining to readers why they should be concerned about expanding ''secretocracy'' in government and how it directly affects their lives, a former investigative reporter told a coalition of open government and press groups Friday.

''It's our job to try to find ways to help them see what has happened'' and why they should care, said Ted Gup, a former investigative reporter for the Washington Post and correspondent for Time magazine. He defined secretocracy, in part, as ''a form of government where secrecy is a principal interest of governance,'' and called it a function of power, not political party.

Gup compared the level of secrecy that exists in government to global climate change, saying that a government allowed to operate without scrutiny or accountability threatens democracy and disenfranchises citizens.

The more that Americans withdraw from being involved and informed citizens, the easier for a secretocracy to flourish, Gup said. Yet reporters don't do enough to explain how abuses of secrecy can lead to decisions not in citizens' best interests, from war and the economy to the safety of food and drugs, he said in a keynote address to the National Freedom of Information Coalition's annual conference.

More here.

NFOIC Keynote Address

A former USA Today reporter held in contempt for not revealing her sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks will give the keynote address at the annual meeting May 9-10 of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

Toni Locy had been ordered by a federal judge to pay fines of up to $5,000 for each day she refuses to reveal her confidential sources, but a federal appeals court earlier this week blocked the order.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia means Locy will not have to pay the fines or face further sanctions, including possibly time in jail, while her lawyers fight the contempt ruling.