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Media, Public Must Fight Secrecy, AP CEO Curley Says

Published: May 17, 2005
Last Updated: May 17, 2005

Tom Curley
President and CEO
The Associated Press

Remarks to the National Freedom of Information Coalition
Santa Fe, New Mexico
May 14, 2005

How humbling it is to stand among some of the world’s most successful and courageous troublemakers. I salute you for all you have done to advance freedom and, especially, freedom of information. Thank you for inviting me today to be part of your on-going conversations on the essence of democracy, the free flow of information.

Fifty-three weeks and two days ago I spoke in Riverside, Calif., at the Belo-Hayes lecture on how a free press serves a free people. I suggested then that the relentless push by government at every level for secrecy since the terrorist attacks in 2001 may have gone on for too long. It was time—perhaps past time—for advocates of open government in the news media to begin pushing back.

I’m happy to report a year later that we have made significant progress on a number of fronts. But I must acknowledge the reason we made so much progress was perhaps for the worst possible reason. Too many of our reporter colleagues are facing jail time.

While national security and vigilance against terrorism are critical public concerns, we reaffirm they cannot become excuses for relaxing our defense of the openness that effective democracy requires.

It’s the government’s job to guard our safety. It’s every citizen’s job to guard our freedom, and freedom of information is the first critical check point in that mission.

The news industry is aware that part of its job is to stand the first watch at that checkpoint at all times…but with special vigilance when crisis on other fronts may cause others to let their guard down.

The first-ever national Sunshine Week in March was a great demonstration of the unity of purpose that has been established on this point.

Led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors with support from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, journalists in every state reported and editorialized on the First Amendment and state and federal FOI laws.

Ten governors proclaimed Sunshine Week in their states, and three state legislatures recognized it by passing resolutions that embraced both the week of observance and the values behind it.

AP participated wholeheartedly in that effort, and I’ve brought along some copies of the package of national stories we produced for publication during the week. Every AP state bureau did packages, too.

I understand from Julie Aicher that part of the New Mexico effort was a series of short “Did You Know” columns on citizen FOI rights which Bob Johnson helped us put together and for which I’d like to thank him today. I’d also like to salute all the AP bureau chiefs and news leaders who have worked so hard on behalf of freedom of information. They are the true leaders in this battle, and they are deeply committed to it. They inspire the rest of us to give voice to what they see happening across this country and around the world every day.

Out of this unity of purpose have come some important results. First, at ASNE, President Bush acknowledged journalists’ concern on the issues—I think we underreported this, and it’s significant. Our voice was heard.

You just heard from Floyd Abrams about the case for a federal shield law and the effort now under way in both houses of Congress to generate support for a bill.

The Newspaper Association of America is coordinating that effort with the help and broad backing of news organizations of all kinds from across the country. And the draft legislation new working its way through the early stages of the process reflects broad consensus among media lawyers over what such a law should include.

That’s a far cry from the last time a federal shield law was under discussion, when it was hard to find two journalists or two lawyers who agreed on those issues.

But I think we’re at a time now when all of us understand the need to speak with one voice and work together for common goals.

In that same spirit, I suggested last year that news people should become more effective advocates for public policies that defend and preserve First Amendment values and access to government for all citizens.

The direct result of that suggestion was the founding in March of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition made up of the two national newspaper associations, ASNE, RTNDA, SPJ, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and AP.

The Initiative has hired lobbying and communications consultants, and is working actively now in support of the Open Government Act of 2005. This bill is new legislation that would make some important improvements to the Freedom of Information Act.

I brought some copies of the bill along that I will leave for anyone who is interested.

The Shield Law and FOI amendment efforts are going to involve long, hard work. Although there are many members of Congress in both parties who understand the issues and are generally supportive of First Amendment principles, bills of this kind would have an uphill climb in the best of times…and of course these are not the best of times.

But if we judge these efforts only by the immediate, specific results they produce, I think we will have misunderstood a major part of their value.

Democracy—the democracy whose integrity we are protecting through our open government efforts—is not about having things your way. Democracy is about checks and balances, and it’s about process.

We defend democracy simply by fulfilling the roles set aside in our system for a free people and a free press. When government oversteps, when government infringes, it is supposed to come up against us. “Us” as in “we the people.” For that to happen, “we the people” have to be there.

Advocacy for public policies that hold and brighten the line beyond which government should not go is one way of being there, a way I think is now necessary and important because elected and appointed officials are pushing so much harder for secrecy.

There are other ways.

Reporters need to be more skilled and more aggressive in using the FOI remedies they still have. There are marvelous examples of great reporting that should be shared.

AP Washington reporter Sharon Theimer obtained the law firm billing records of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose dealings with Tom DeLay are now under investigation. She got the documents through a novel open records request filed through the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory that has a FOIA-like law. Sharon learned the records were in the islands’ possession from an earlier audit and requested them under the islands open records law. She got a 14-inch stack of documents that so far have produced several widely touted exclusives that showed Abramoff used his personal credit card to pay for travel for members of Congress despite a ban on such payments.

Reporters also need to be ready to protest vigorously and audibly, and to call for help from their editors and publishers, when public meetings or trials are improperly closed or public documents sealed.

And editors and publishers need to be ready to call in their lawyers when a judge seems to be closing down trial coverage just because it’s convenient to deal with the press corps or because the defendant is prominent or powerful.

First Amendment and access rights don’t enforce themselves anymore than others. They’re only ours if we exercise them against those willing and able to deny them.

Legal fees to push back can no longer be considered extraordinary or occasional expense, not even in small communities. They are a core cost of doing business as a news organization.

Finally, we all need to do a better job of persuading the public that freedom of information is not a media privilege but a key part of what keeps all other freedoms alive for everyone.

At Congressional hearings this week NAA leader Jay Smith of Cox, a former reporter, gave insightful testimony on how the lack of access to public records hurt ordinary people.

Congressmen seemed most stirred by how constituents were getting thwarted by a cumbersome bureaucracy or even possibly pro-active efforts by a government bureaucracy to prevent access to personal records.

This is precisely the common ground we must define and exploit. We must show how our work serves the public. We should be as bold as our editorial policies and style will allow about highlighting for our audiences when the exercise of FOI rights brings important stories to light, and when illegal denial of access leaves the public in the dark.

We’ve got to rebuild trust with the people we serve, so they sense that we’re on their side and fighting their fight as we fight our own. Transparency cannot be solely about the other guy or, more specifically, us pointing fingers about unwilling governments.

We must act to open our own houses to sunshine. One important place to begin is to push back on stories with anonymous sources. Let’s first acknowledge the difference between confidential and anonymous sources. Too often we resort to anonymous for expediency or, even worse, when we want to feel part of an insider’s game.

The late Tip O’Neill was often quoted as saying that “all politics is local.”

The same could be said about freedom of information.

We’re struggling now for a national shield law, but more than 30 states have had them for years, and half of those statues provide absolute protection for the identities of confidential sources.

I’ve been told that 39 states have open government coalitions. AP pledges to work with you on the remaining ones. And I personally pledge to call—next week in Pennsylvania—which has some of the worst track record on open records and performance in government jobs.

Governor Richardson’s theme in the speech he made last month at AP’s annual meeting in San Francisco was that state capitals, more than Washington, are where government is developing creative ways to serve constituencies and solve problems.

Likewise, the most important battle lines are drawn and the greatest advances on FOI have been made in your bailiwicks—in county seats and city halls and statehouses.

Your dedication and your success are so important to maintaining the kind of society all of us want to live in. As the Miller-Cooper court fight moves to its next phase, we must acknowledge that we likely are closer to the beginning rather than the culmination of the battle for a federal shield law. We need your help. We want to stay close. We ask your advice and counsel. In so doing, we support the many great reporters at home or abroad—today, especially under trying circumstances in Uzbekistan and Iraq—who are advancing the cause of a free press and freedom itself.

I’ll close with another epigrammatic quote from a deceased politician of Irish descent, which I think you’ll like. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said this:

“Secrecy is for losers.”

Thanks again for inviting me to be with you today.