Editorial: Public records

Newspapers and other watchdog groups can’t inform the public about what government agencies are up to if those agencies won’t provide the information they are required to provide.

Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson almost 50 years ago, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was supposed to promote “an open society in which the people’s right to know is cherished and guarded.” But in the decades since, many government entities have grown adept at hiding public information — and that’s particularly true in President Obama’s self-described “most transparent administration in history.”

Consider the experience of The Associated Press when it tried to dig into one particular federal fiasco.

In 2014, the wire service revealed that the U.S. government, in an attempt to bring about democratic change in Cuba, had launched a secret, fake Twitter-like program called ZunZuneo, organized a secret hip-hop operation in that nation, and sent young people to Cuba in an attempt to recruit activists.

The programs, which cost American taxpayers millions of dollars, were dismal failures. According to The AP, some Cubans unknowingly caught up in “Cuban Twitter” were taken into custody by Cuban authorities, while the hip-hop event was derailed after Cuban authorities discovered the festival was backed by the Obama administration. The initiatives were derided by some U.S. lawmakers, who called them “boneheaded,” and “reckless.”

The AP filed a FOIA request seeking access to emails related to the Cuban programs from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The agency responded in all-too-typical fashion. It stonewalled in hopes the story would blow over. Two weeks ago, The Associated Press got the documents — two years after it asked for them.

The wire service’s experience here is hardly unusual.

President Obama boasts of transparency but his administration has set records for delays in complying with freedom of information requests. This unacceptable lack of responsiveness is a byproduct of a government that has grown so bloated that each agency has its own operating culture and FOIA compliance process.

The federal government conducts the public’s business, and as such, the public should have access to government work. FOIA is a check on corruption, waste and government wrongdoing. Without responsiveness and transparency, there can be no accountability.

FOIA is in need of reform. Federal records must be presumed open and the Office of Government Information Services — created to improve the FOIA process — must empower its ombudsman to ensure timely compliance. Federal agencies should face consequences for ignoring or refusing to honor FOIA requests — especially if those seeking the records have to go to court to obtain them.