It provides EU citizens for the first time with a formal right of access to official documents. Electronic computer files of top Environmental Protection Agency officials under former President Clinton were erased in January, despite a court order to preserve records sought in a FOIA lawsuit by a conservative legal group, the Lankmark Legal Foundation. Pointing to increasing public concern about the security of medical records, financial data and other personal information, a House Government Reform subcommittee voted to establish a 17-member federal commission to conduct a comprehensive study of privacy issues and make recommendations to Congress and the President. Well, it's been a rough year in Florida.
Access comes with costs.
A recent poll found 65 percent of the public asserting that the news media unnecessarily invade citizens' privacy. And politicians are listening. New Jersey apparently will pass a tough new FOI bill. The bill gives citizens who are denied access to records a new option of taking their case to a Government Records Council, which would hear it free of charge. The council would attempt to resolve the dispute informally through mediation.