FOTP 2013 Full Report

The United States adopted the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966. While theadministration of President George W. Bush had a somewhat restrictive attitude toward therelease of classified documents, the Obama administration announced a more expansiveinterpretation of the law in 2009, when the attorney general declared that records should bereleased to the public unless doing so would violate another law or cause foreseeable harm toprotected interests, including personal privacy and national security. Critics have complainedthat approximately half of federal government agencies have yet to comply with Obama’sexecutive order and that fulfillment of FOIA requests can take months or even years. The Obamaadministration has also drawn criticism for policies that discourage journalistic access to federalofficials. The president holds fewer press conferences than his predecessors and often usesinterviews with friendly media to present his perspective to the public. Journalists have alsocomplained of an environment in which officials are less likely to discuss policy issues withreporters than during previous administrations.Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, the courts have been asked to adjudicate a number ofrequests by journalists or civil liberties organizations who seek access to information related tocounterterrorism. In April 2012, a federal court denied a request by Judicial Watch for access tophotographs that showed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden’s body after he was killed during a2011 raid by American special forces. The federal judiciary has also been asked to rule onreporters’ access to the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, where over 100 detaineesassociated with counterterrorism efforts or the war in Afghanistan are held.Official regulation of media content in the United States is minimal, and there are noindustry-wide self-regulatory bodies. By law, radio and television airwaves are considered publicproperty and are leased to private stations, which determine content. The FederalCommunications Commission (FCC) is charged with administering licenses and reviewingcontent to ensure that it complies with federal limits on indecent or offensive material interrestrial broadcasts. While the judiciary has declined to issue a broad ruling on the FCC’sauthority to regulate indecency on the airwaves, recent decisions have chipped away at theagency’s power. The Supreme Court ruled against FCC restrictions in two cases in 2012, oneinvolving fleeting expletives during awards shows and another involving partial nudity in apolice drama.Although the government does not restrict political or social engagement over theinternet, there are laws banning or regulating promulgation of child-abuse images, exposure ofminors to indecent content, dissemination of confidential information, online gambling, and theuse of copyrighted material. The search-engine giant Google reported that requests fromgovernment entities at the local, state, and federal levels for removal of content had risen steadilyin recent years, including in 2012. Two proposed laws—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) andthe PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)—that would have allowed the government to order the blocking ofentire websites if they contained copyrighted material without authorization were withdrawn inJanuary after internet companies and advocates of internet freedom staged a series of virtualprotests, including blackouts by a number of frequently-used sites.Controversy has emerged in recent years over cases involving bloggers and other newmedia workers who claim the status, protections, and rights of journalists. Police departments inNew York City and elsewhere denied formal journalist status to some new media practitionerswho applied for accreditation to cover the Occupy protests in 2011. The debate continued inJanuary 2012, when several journalists were arrested while covering the clashes between policeand Occupy protesters in Oakland, California. Those without what the police accepted as official399