How business interests shaped US public records law: Q&A with Jeannine Relly

By Clark Merrefield, Journalist Resource June 28, 2019

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Journalists use FOIA to tell stories about government dealings that otherwise might be shut away forever. But obtaining information through FOIA can get tricky in practice, especially when government business and private industry interests overlap, which they often do.

We talked recently with Jeannine Relly, an associate professor at the University of Arizona School of Journalism, about how business interests have shaped FOIA amendments since the act was passed in 1966. Relly has extensively studied international right-to-know trends in journalism. In 2016 Government Information Quarterly published her paper, “How Business Lobby Networks Shaped the U.S. Freedom of Information Act: An Examination of 60 Years of Congressional Testimony,” written with Carol Schwalbe, director of the UA School of Journalism.

Read the entire article here.