It’s a good thing that Texas is passing a journalism shield law, because reporters may need new tools to redress the hammering that the Freedom of Information Act could take this session.
Today, while the House Judiciary committee will be taking testimony on that very shield law, House State Affairs will be hearing Senate Bill 889. This subtle but radical bill does away with the established idea that a FOIA request should be free (after all, it’s your government, paid for with your taxes). Under the bill, anyone making a successful request will get the first hundred pages of documents free. After that, they’ll have to pay 10 cents per page, plus “costs of materials, overhead, … and any other cost or expense actually incurred in locating, compiling, and photocopying the public information.”
The committee report on the bill says it’s a response to citizens using FOIA for “harassment or retaliatory purposes.” But the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the Texas Press Association have both spoken against it for the chilling effect it will have on public oversight.
Is 10 cents per sheet a lot? No. Not unless you’re a small operation looking to get access to a large amount of files. Plus those nebulous “extra” charges could mount up, if an agency decided that those files were just really hard to get to.
This article appears in May 4 • 2007.
