WASHINGTON, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Obama administration is unwilling to make public information more transparent for journalists, a representative of a watchdog journalist group Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"It just continuously gets worse one administration learns from the last administration they begin to make their controls tighter, they apparently are making the warning to staff against speaking to a reporter more specific," said Kathryn Foxhall, an SPJ member and a freelance journalist, adding that over the past 20 years she has seen one administration after another become less transparent towards journalists. "At this point in many federal agencies, we simply can't talk to staff without quote 'reporting to the authorities,' " Foxhall said.
According to Foxhall, many US reporters don't even try to reach given officials as they know that most likely it will not work.
"We would like these policies stopped because they're serious and highly effective censorship," said Foxhall. "It's fine for agencies to have an official statement on anything and a reporter should always know what the official policy or statement are," she added.
In July, SPJ and 38 other journalism and open government groups have send a letter to the White House urging the Obama administration to make public information more transparent for journalists. The letter outlined several examples of a lack of transparency within the Obama administration including: examples of officials blocking reporters' request to talk to key staff members, excessive delays in responding to interview requests and officials refusing to go on record with reporters with public information.
In response to the SPJ's letter, the White House argued that the Obama administration has been committed to leading an "open and responsive government," since the president took office, and promised to lead a more transparent government going forward.
"We've made important progress expanding access to the President and his aides, protecting whistleblowers, simplifying government websites, streamlining FOIA [Freedom of Information] requests, and disclosing previously classified information," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a response statement to SPJ's letter.
According to the reporter advocacy group Reporters Without Borders' 2014 World Freedom Index that looks at the press freedoms of 180 countries around the world, since Obama took office, the US' press freedom rank fell from 32nd to 46th.
