FOI Resources
Sunshine Week
– Sunshine Week Toolkit [sunshineweek.org]
– Sunshine Week website [sunshineweek.org]
– Chapter FOI program ideas
– Campus FOI resources
– FOI activities for newsrooms
– Writing about FOI
– Curriculum and classroom ideas for teachers
– FOI resources
SPJ's Black Hole Award: The Society of Professional Journalists launched the Black Hole Award in order to highlight the most heinous violations of the public’s right to know. By exposing examples of unnecessary and harmful secrecy, we hope to educate the public to their rights and hold government accountable. To learn more, visit the Black Hole Award web page.
Reporter’s Guide to FERPA: Navigating the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act:
Ever have a tough time getting public records from schools or universities? We feel your pain and are here to help you. The federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act has been twisted beyond recognition, keeping school lunch menus, graduation honors and athletic travel records secret. Take back your right to information with this guide, produced by the Society of Professional Journalists in conjunction with the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.
Society of Professional Journalists
— Quill: Stories About FOI
— Sunshine Chair in your state
— SPJ's FOI Committee
— Open Doors publication guide to access
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
— Reports and tips regarding access, including a guide to using FOIA and a state-by-state explanation of access laws.
Student Press Law Center
— Online state records request letter generator and guides to campus records
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
— Keyword searchable morgue of 23,000 investigative stories and 2,000 tip sheets
— Hundreds of FOIA requests that have been filed
— Cheap access to dozens of federal databases
— Website (membership required for full use of site)
Open the Government
This non-profit group, represented by a variety of organizations including SPJ, has current news and reports on FOI. This group is particularly good at keeping up on federal access issues.
The National Security Archive
This institute separate from government acquires and posts a variety of interesting government documents. Check it out for great story ideas.
Government Attic
This site launched in 2007 gathers a variety of interesting federal records and posts them online, mainly as pdf files, for people to view and use as they like. Great story ideas.
Freedom of Information Center
This center at the University of Missouri School of Journalism provides a ton of information about access to public records laws and access audits.
Websites with great document-driven ideas you can use in your own community
— SPJ Open Doors, records A-Z
— IRE Extra! Extra! daily stories
— Society of Environmental Journalists story archive
— Google News Alerts (Go to Google News, click on “News Alerts”, then set up alerts with keywords such as “public records request” and “freedom of information” and Google will send you links to stories that contain those keywords).
Click here to contact the Project Sunshine Chair in your state.
SPJ News
– E.W. Scripps School of Journalism named Historic Site in Journalism
– ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, The Marshall Project, Military Times, City Bureau, The Maine Monitor honored with SPJ Sunshine Award
– Austin American-Statesman, Chicago Tribune, ProPublica and The Washington Post earn SPJ Ethics in Journalism Awards
Events and Deadlines
– 9/23/23: Shop SPJ Sale
– 9/26/23: Why headline testing matters & how AI can help
– 9/28/23: SPJ23 Annual Convention
– 9/28/23: SPJ23 Keynote featuring Gio Benitez
– 9/29/23: Covering a U.S. Government Shutdown: Story ideas for national and local reporters
