{"id":12331,"date":"2022-03-16T16:02:37","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T20:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/?p=12331"},"modified":"2025-02-07T16:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:33:58","slug":"doj-foia-guidelines-call-for-more-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/doj-foia-guidelines-call-for-more-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ FOIA Guidelines Call for More Transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/share.listnr.tech\/embed\/voiceover\/62323f98bc8554001e18f66e\" width=\"100%\" height=\"165\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On March 15, Attorney General Merrick Garland released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/page\/file\/1483516\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #2f7de1;\">guidelines<\/span><\/a> on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). These guidelines come during Sunshine Week after much<span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #2f7de1;\"> <a style=\"color: #2f7de1; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OpenTheGov\/status\/1496632904713187331?s=20&amp;t=-ssbpTwNEHn2lc6OOiBd_w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">promptin<\/a>g<\/span><span class=\"apple-converted-space\" style=\"color: #2f7de1;\">\u00a0<\/span>by open government advocates and congressional representatives. The guidelines include a presumption of openness, telling agencies if foreseeable harm is in doubt, \u201copenness should prevail,\u201d and strongly encouraging agencies to make discretionary disclosures of information. The Attorney General also said the DOJ will not defend FOIA cases that are inconsistent with this presumption of openness. The guidelines further outline proactive disclosure requirements, removing barriers to access, and reducing backlogs. <span class=\"apple-converted-space\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/merrick-garland-orders-more-open-access-to-government-documents-11647384217?mod=politics_lead_pos6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #2f7de1;\">Read more<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 15, Attorney General Merrick Garland released\u00a0guidelines\u00a0on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). These guidelines come during Sunshine Week after much\u00a0prompting\u00a0by open government advocates and congressional representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,206,180],"tags":[679,1084,1085,1638,1689,1691],"class_list":["post-12331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-free-press","category-journalism","tag-doj","tag-foia","tag-freedom-of-information-act","tag-guidelines","tag-open-government","tag-sunshine-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}