Saving the Freedom of Information Act

Enacted in 1966, and taking effect on July 5, 1967, the Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA) provides that any person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to federal agency records, and establishes a statutory right of public access to Executive Branch information in the federal government. Professor Margaret Kwoka posits that FOIA was designed to promote oversight of governmental activities, under the notion that most users would be journalists. Today, however, FOIA is largely used for purposes other than fostering democratic accountability, and most requesters are either individuals seeking their own files, businesses using FOIA as part of commercial enterprises, or others with idiosyncratic purposes like political opposition research. In this sweeping, empirical study, Kwoka documents how agencies have responded to the large volume of non-oversight requesters by creating new processes, systems, and specialists, which in turn has had a deleterious impact on journalists and the media. To address this problem, Kwoka proposes a series of structural solutions aimed at shrinking FOIA to re-center its oversight purposes.

The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily state or reflect those of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Fair Use Disclaimer:

All content that uses public funds by any US government agency, state, or local government is available for worldwide use and reuse under the terms of the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license. Included within these resources may be copyrighted material(s), the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Any copyrighted content used is for educational, research, reporting, commentary, entertainment, informational, and criticism purposes.

In our efforts to provide the Rumble community with quality content that is “fair use,” this content is covered under Section 107 of the Copyright Act ( https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/ ).

If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes that go beyond “fair use,” you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If you believe that any copyrighted materials appear in this content and you disagree with our assessment that it constitutes “fair use,” please get in touch with us.