Records of Disaster

By Colleen Shaughnessy, RTDNA Editorial Team

Mark Schleifstein, environmental reporter for The Times Picayune spoke about overcoming the obstacles of accessing public records when covering a natural disaster.  Schleifstein won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for his Hurricane Katrina coverage during which he struggled with limited phone service and little information from government officials.  During the BP gulf oil spill, Schleiftstein’s Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) was buried in a pile of many unanswered requests.  Schleifstein sought other sources that says will be helpful for reporters.

Web Blogs: Often, attorneys of class suits are likely to publish documents so they are available to the public. 

Bureau of Ocean, Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement: (www.boemre.gov)

National Response Center: (www.nrc.uscg.mil): The sole federal database for all chemical and oil spills. Obtain the report number and contact the Coast Guard for further information.

Environmental Protection Agency: (www.epa.gov):  The EPA and the company responsible for a spill work together to create an Area Contingency Plan.

Michael Morisy, Co-Founder of muckrock.com helped create a website where journalists can search and file FOIA requests and track their progress.  Muckrock is an open government tool and has published 16,203 government documents to date.  Morisy has tips on how to successfully access government documents.

How to get the best of FOIA requests

Prepare

•    Research: find the contingency plans for the disaster
•    Know your local FOIA officers: make it clear that your request is not an attack, but a public right
•    In government everything is documented: documents are indexed, indexes go in quarterly/annual reports.
•    Think: what are the documents that will tell the story?

File

•    Keep the file clean, concise and simple
•    Confirm that it has arrived with the appropriate person via email or phone
•    Be polite, understanding and slightly intimidating. Remember: it is your right to access the files.

The Chase

•    After filing: follow up every two weeks
•    If denied: file an administrative appeal.  Often documents are denied for the first request but granted upon appeal.
•    Track the timeline and know the local laws for requests.

Know the laws

•    Get used to explaining your rights
•    File administrative appeals early for non-compliant agencies
•    Some administrators do not know the laws and your rights, ask to speak to the legal department
•    If the documents are costly: ask for digital not print copies.  Get the detailed breakdown of the cost.  The IT department may have a cheaper, digital solution.

3 Valuable Resources

1.    “The Art of Access,” a book written by David Cuillier and Charles Davis detailing how to obtain public records.
2.    www.nfoic.org/foi-listserv : An internet mailing list discussion regarding public records and FOI in states.
3.    Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (www.rcfp.org): Free legal assistant for journalists.