Freedom of the Press Forever

With the onset of War in Iraq, embedded journalism, and the sensitization of the public globally in regard to personal views on the many topics relative to national safety and war in general~~the idea of Freedom of the Press has also come under scrutiny. Collectively, the populous at large views, reviews, and opines over information shared, wondering what is, if anything is, too much, and when there is too little information shared. Emotions are charged as we go through the processes of information provision and its (sometimes) required oversight.

For the past year, after joining a relative FOI ListServ it's become obvious how much reporters, journalists, and writers, per se, have to learn and research in conveying messages through the free press. In an earlier article, Fourth Estate Guardians Research, the Fourth Estate Guardian (FEG) reader is provided with resources for conducting research relative to stylus' for writing, organization, internet tools, and MLA citations. This present article provides further data that is more relative to the Freedom of Information Act and the resources necessary to gain insight on requirements in providing accurate reporting and writing as a FEG.

United States (US) Department of Justice (DOJ) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has multiple divisions that can be accessed for information gathering, these are:

• Antitrust Division,
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives,
• Civil Division,
• Civil Rights Division,
• Criminal Division,
• Environment Division,
• Executive Office for Immigration Review,
• Office of Legal Counsel,
• Office of Solicitor General,
• Terrorism-Related Documents,
• U.S. Trustees, and
• Violence Against Women Office (OJP).

"The theory of democracy suggests that if citizens and their lawmakers are well informed and able to debate issues, they will make better decisions" (War & Press Freedom : The Problem of Prerogative Power, Book by Jeffery A. Smith; Oxford US, 1999.)

Jeffrey Smith's book, War & Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative Power suggests censorship occurring in every major conflict and/or wartime effort, however today we are innundated with live press coverage where we view the wartime effort as it occurs. We are forming our opinions and beliefs based on what form of press consumption we decide to utilize. Certainly, this is freedom of the press in its ultimate form. No matter the level of distaste it may cause us while we are viewing and interpreting what we are seeing~we are gaining our insights first hand. We can selectively decide on what is accurate.

Accuracy of the press is another element of reporting and writing altogether. With moment to moment interaction taking place, how much research and introspection can be achieved while remaining timely in reporting? It is, to me, the writing that is undertaken to provoke depth of thought and consideration, generally occurring after the fact that will prove most informative when regarded retrospectively in our futures.

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