Open records

A tighter state secrets law under consideration in Japan could be troubling for reporters pursuing stories on governmental wrongdoing Foreign Policy reports: "There used to be a saying among Washington bureaucrats: A great way to leak information is to pass it along to Tokyo. Once hailed as a 'spy's paradise' because of its weak state secrecy laws, Japan is trying to reform its reputation as an information sieve with a hotly contested measure that would bring Japanese law more in line with U.S. national security policy -- perhaps with troubling implications. The bill ... would give agency heads discretionary power to classify 23 types of information in four categories -- defense, diplomacy, counter-terrorism, and counter-intelligence -- and stiffens penalties for leaking state secrets, even in cases of journalists exposing wrongdoing." The proposed law would mean governmental employees who share classified information with journalists could face up to 10 years in prison, and reporters could be prosecuted for encouraging the leaking of information, Foreign Policy also reports.

Reuters reports on the final enactment of the legislation, including that "journalists and others in the private sector convicted of encouraging such leaks could get up to five years if they use 'grossly inappropriate' means to solicit the information."

A legislative task force "created under a hastily-passed law intended to prevent the disclosure of crime scene photographs and certain audio recordings collected by police following the Sandy Hook shooting and other homicides" has agreed to a compromise in which there would be limited access to crime scene photos and videos involving child crime victims, CT News Junkie reports. A central location would be created where the records could be viewed, but not copied. The proposal also would create a release valve for members of the public to make the case for releasing protected records to serve the public interest.

The Connecticut Mirror reports that Superior Court Judge Eliot D. Prescott ordered the release of 911 calls made after Adam Lanza opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., unless he is overturned on appeal.

'"Delaying the release of the audio recordings, particularly where the legal justification to keep them confidential is lacking, only serves to fuel speculation about and undermines confidence in our law enforcement officials,'" The Connecticut Mirror reported the judge opining.

The judge rejected all of the prosecution's argument to keep the 911 calls out of the public, including that releasing the calls would "have a chilling effect on those who might need to call 911," The Connecticut Mirror further reported.

The Associated Press is seeking the 911 calls.

The Wyoming Supreme Court heard arguments this week on whether "a trade secrets exemption in the state's open records law shields many of the chemicals the petroleum industry uses during hydraulic fracturing from public disclosure," according to the Associated Press. Companies do have to disclose the makeup of the chemical products to the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, but environmentalists want the commission to disclose that information to the public.

The New Mexico Human Services Department is citing a law enforcement exception to that state's public records law as the reason it doesn't have to disclose an audit of 15 health-care providers; the audit was passed onto law enforcement, New Mexico In Depth reports. The lawyer for two New Mexico media outlets is arguing in court that this situation could set a "terrifying" precedent because it would "enable government officials to keep otherwise public documents from the public simply by passing them on to law enforcement agencies."

When the attorney for an apartment-building developer sent 52 Right-to-Know requests to a Pennsylvania township, that has not been without costs, the Reading Eagle reports. "Each request has led to minutes, hours or even weeks of digging out records, sending emails or conversing with attorneys - all of it tapping limited resources and money available to the small government entities," the Reading Eagle further reports. (The underlying dispute is over sewerage for the proposed apartments.)

Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, told the newspaper the answer to those costs is to have documents uploaded onto government websites as a matter of course.

Legislation to amend the five-year-old legislation is currently pending in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
 

An appellate court has upheld a $8,600 award in civil penalties and attorney fees against the New Orleans Police Department for violating a public records request made by the New Orleans-based Innocence Project, The Times Picayune reported. The newspaper further reported: "the local office of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal group that seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants, sued the NOPD earlier this year after it was denied access to investigative files from a 1991 aggravated rape and burglary case. State law requires a response to the request within three days, but 65 days elapsed before City Attorney Sharonda Williams' office responded, mostly denying the request." Violators of  the public records law can face penalties of up to $100 per day.

The Republican majority leader of the Pennsylvania Senate is weighing several changes to the state's five-year-old right-to-know law, according to a report from The Harrisburg Patriot-News.

The proposed changes include:

- making state-affiliated universities like Penn State subject to the law in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal;

- controlling the number of right-to-know requests from prisoners (although carving out a class of requestors could create bad precedent);

- making the Office of Open Records an independent agency;

- allowing local governments to deny allegedly "unduly burdensome" requests.
 

A Connecticut panel, appointed to review the state's public records laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, heard testimony related to its charge to "recommend to lawmakers how to alter the delicate balance of victims' right to privacy and the public's right to know about crimes and the operations of agencies like police departments," The Connecticut Post reports.  One father whose son was murdered asked: '"What right do have to see my son's body or hear his last moments, just because such information is in a government file cabinet?"' The Post reported. But proponents of disclosure testified it would keep law enforcement accountable for their response in emergency situations.

Connecticut is only one of nine states restricting the public disclosure of crime scene photos, Connecticut News Junkie reports on a survey conducted by the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research. Connecticut also is only one of 11 states restricting the public disclosure of 911 calls.

"Over the past few weeks the legislature’s research staff has been compiling reports for a task force convened by lawmakers to weigh the privacy of crime victims against the public’s right to know under the state’s Freedom of Information Act," Conneticut News Junkie reports. "The panel was created by a law that carved out new disclosure restrictions on the release of some law enforcement records pertaining to homicide victims and victims who are children" in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings.