Public Support for Press Access Declines as Personal Privacy Concerns Increase

Government officials are increasingly closing public records because of citizen concern about privacy invasion,1 and the increased secrecy inhibits the press's ability to monitor government and shed light on societal problems. This exploratory study investigates the relationship between public attitudes toward privacy invasion and access.The threat of easy access to information by cyber-stalkers, identity thieves, marketers and others has increased political pressure for government records closures, such as Congress's approval in 1994 of the DriversPrivacy Protection Act, which restricted driver's license information.2 Privacy is the most-cited reason government officials use to deny access to public records. One study of 13 federal agencies showed that 80 percent of public records requests denials from 1998 to 2002 were because of privacy. Only 1 percent of denials were for national security reasons, even after the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attacks.3 A similar study sponsored by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found a six-fold increase from 1998 to 2002 in the use of privacy exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act by 25 federal agencies. In 2002 the agencies used privacy exemptions to deny 380,000 public records requests.4The courts have given more weight toward privacy concerns in recent years.5 For example, the U.S. Supreme Court limited access to electronic government records because of privacy concerns in its 1989 ruling Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee.6 More recently, on March 30, 2004, the Supreme Court extended privacy protections to surviving family members of the deceased. In Office of Independent Counsel v. Favish the court determined that the privacy concerns of family members overshadowed the need for public access to autopsy photos of Vincent Foster, former deputy White House counsel for President Bill Clinton. Foster had been found dead in a park in what officials concluded was a shooting suicide. The photos were sought in order to independently investigate whether Foster's death was suicide or government-sanctioned murder.7Even journalists seem to be more sensitive to privacy.8 Surveys of newspaper editors in 1993 and 1999 showed a 12.2 percent drop, from 71 percent to 58.8 percent, in support of reporting private matters-such as extramarital affairs-of public officials.9Achieving privacy protection by closing government records, however, comes at a price. Access to government information is considered a critical function in a self-governing democracy."' As a result of the records closures, journalists say they are unable to monitor government adequately or to expose societal problems as effectively as they had in the mid-1990s.11Literature ReviewRarely have the two conceptsconcern for privacy invasion and support for press rights-been studied together.12 Driscoll, Splichal, Salwen and Garrison conducted a nationwide survey in 1998 of 403 adults regarding access to public records, finding that support varied depending on the nature of the record and who sought the information.13 For example, 85 percent of those surveyed agreed police need access to government records for their jobs, but only 49 percent agreed the media need open records to do their jobs. Study participants also reported that open records could be a threat to their personal privacy.A similar study the same year found that people were concerned about their privacy and that they were actually more supportive of marketers' access to records than they were for journalists' access.14These studies have beenbuilt upon decades of research regarding public support for free expression.15 Studies have demonstrated that increased fear is related to decreased public support for civil liberties.16 One specific type of fear is concern for privacy invasion. "Need for privacy" has been defined as the need for people to control how information about themselves is communicated . …