The third week in March is National Sunshine Week, which recognizes the right of the public—including freelance journalists and other writers—to access government records at all levels.
Government records are a staple of journalism, whether you cover health care, labor, environment, education, housing, politics, or government itself.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), passed in 1966 and enacted the following year, grants members of the public the right to request federal government records.
States and municipalities have their own laws covering access to public records, and specific rules and regulations can be different for each.
Resources for Learning How to Make Public Records Requests
In honor of National Sunshine Week, here are resources for learning how to make FOIA and other public records requests.
Sunshine Week – This nonpartisan collaboration between journalism, civic, education, and other groups is coordinated by the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Sunshine Week website includes a list of dozens of events and activities happening the week of March 16-22, including the two-day Sunshine Fest in-person conference March 19-20 in Washington D.C. The site also has FOI resources and a FOIA how-to video series with reporters from the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press explaining the process.
The FOIA website. Run by the Justice Dept.’s Office of Information Policy, the official FOIA website offers information on the basic FOIA process as well as on how to use the site’s search tool to find public records and start a specific request. Use the site to download a complete list of FOIA contacts across federal departments, and read FAQs. Before getting started, the site advises researching to see if information you’re seeking is already publicly available on a federal agency website, and identifying which of the more than 100 federal agencies or departments to contact for the material you’re looking for. It also shares background on how the FOIA process works, including exemptions and expected response times.
Society for Professional Journalists Freedom of Information site. The 116-year-old organization for professional journalists’ Freedom of Information Committee maintains this site, which serves as a repository of information related to the First Amendment, press freedoms, and FOI guides. The site’s FOI for pros: A step-by-step guide provides resources to help writers who might be unfamiliar with FOI laws and need help submitting a records request “or simply don’t know where to start.” The guide includes a compendium of information on US state open records and open meeting laws, which can be viewed individually or by comparing multiple states. It also has a public records request letter generator, and links to additional resources, including to state SPJ chapters, which freelancers can join.
Muckrock FOIA 101: Tips and Tricks to Make You a Transparency Master. If someone’s made a FOIA request in the past, chances are good you can find it at Muckrock, the nonprofit collaborative news site and public resource dedicated to analyzing and sharing government documents. The organization has helped FOIA filers make close to 153,000 requests to 26,000 agencies, and had more than 10 million pages of documents released as a result. Muckrock’s FOIA 101 resources includes basic tips for beginners; intermediate and advanced-level information such as how to get faster responses; site guides; assignments; a guide to exemptions; agency-specific advice, and more. Muckrock offers a free newsletter on investigative and FOIA news, covers public records-related news, and hosts the free monthly, Zoom-based FOIAFriday podcast (RSVP here).