Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.
Public records requests in New Mexico can now be made over e-mail or by fax, and state lawmakers will open their final bill negotiations process, in two pro-transparency changes Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law last week.
State lawmakers in Florida are working on a laundry list of potential new exemptions to that state's open-records laws, including barring from the public crime scene photos that depict dead people and information in a database of foreclosed properties, the Associated Press reports.
A Pennsylvania county is working on making civil records not only easier to access but also, in most cases, free. Anyone with a flash drive can now download, free of charge, civil court records from the Lancaster County prothonotary office, which is the custodial agency for those documents.
The city of New Orleans committed a "flagrant violation of the law" and must pay nearly $7,000 in penalties for ignoring a local TV station's public records request for nearly two months, a judge ruled last week.
Utah state senators voted Monday in favor of legislation sealing public records that are either being used in an open investigation or could be used in an active lawsuit, The Deseret News reports.
A lengthy investigation in Missouri has bolstered allegations that former Gov. Matt Blunt's administration violated various state open records laws, the Associated Press reports.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine will soon have the option to sign legislation banning public disclosure of a state database of concealed handgun permit-holders.
Pennsylvania's brand new Office of Open Records ruled on Thursday that birth dates of the state's employees and the names of its contractors are public under the newly revised Right-to-Know Law.
Two plaintiffs are challenging Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act in federal court there because it requires requesters to be citizens of the state.
The plaintiffs, residents of California and Rhode Island, represented by Georgetown’s Institute for Public Representation, filed suit against Virginia claiming the law’s citizen-requirement violates their constitutional rights.
