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Access to information is declining after Sept. 11
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-insshrinkingaccess120901dec0
9.story
By Eric Lichtblau | National Correspondent
Posted December 9, 2001
WASHINGTON -- The document seemed innocuous enough: a survey of government
data on reservoirs and
dams on CD-ROM. But then came this past month's federal directive to U.S.
libraries: "Destroy the report."
So a Syracuse University library clerk broke the disc into pieces, saving a
single shard to prove that the deed was done.
The unusual order from the Government Printing Office reflects one of the
hidden casualties of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: the public's shrinking
access to information that many once took for granted.
Want to find out whether there are any hazardous waste sites near the local
day-care center? What safety controls are in place at nuclear power plants?
Or how many people are incarcerated in terrorist-related probes?
Since Sept. 11, it has become much harder to get such information from the
federal government, a growing number of states and public libraries as
heightened concern about national security has often trumped the public's
"right to know:"
[...]
The trend reverses a decades-long shift toward greater public access to
information, even highly sensitive documents such as the Pentagon
Papers or unconventional manifestos such as the Anarchist's Cookbook, a
compilation of recipes for making bombs. The popularity of the Internet has
made
sensitive information even easier to come by in recent years, but the events
of Sept. 11 are
now fueling a new debate in Washington: How much do Americans need to know?
The swinging of the pendulum away from open records, supporters of the trend
say, is a necessary safeguard against terrorists who could use sensitive
public information to attack airports, water treatment plants, nuclear
reactors and more.
In an Oct. 12 memo announcing the new FOIA policies, Attorney General John
Ashcroft said that, while "a well-informed citizenry" is essential to
government accountability, national security should be a priority.
But academicians, public-interest groups, media representatives and others
warn of an overreaction.
[...]
Officials acknowledge there are few examples of terrorists using public
records to glean sensitive information, but they say the terrorist attacks
prove the need for extraordinary caution.
The first directive by the Government Printing Office, made last month at
the request of the U.S. Geological Survey, ordered libraries to destroy the
water resources guide.
While the depository program has pulled documents before because they
contained mistakes or were outdated, this was the first time in memory that
documents were destroyed because of security concerns, said Francis Buckley,
superintendent of documents for the printing office.
Because the water survey was published and owned by the U.S. Geological
Survey, the libraries that participate in the depository program said they
had little choice but to comply. Some librarians asked if they could pull
the CD from shelves and put it in a secure place, but federal officials told
them that it had to be destroyed.
"I hate to do it," said Christine Gladish, government information librarian
at Cal State Los Angeles, which has pulled the water survey from its
collection and is preparing todestroy it. "Libraries don't like to censor
information. Freedom of information is a professional
tenet."
Peter Graham, university librarian at Syracuse University, said:
"Destruction seems to be the least desirable option to me. . . . We're all
waiting for the other shoe to drop. Are we going to see a lot more
withdrawals (of documents)? That's my fear."
Some have resisted the push to limit access, even on such nerve-rattling
subjects as anthrax.
The American Society for Microbiology, for one, has on its Web site certain
details on how to produce an antibiotic-resistant strain of anthrax.
After the anthrax attacks, "we had an internal discussion and decided not to
remove it,"
said Dr. Ronald Atlas, president-elect of the prestigious scientific
organization.
[...]
Chemical- and water-industry groups are lobbying the Bush administration to
curtail regulations providing public access to the operations of public
facilities, data that environmentalists say are critical to ensuring safety.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing publications that it has made
available to the public, and it is almost certain to ask for the destruction
of some of its titles.
[...]
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