FOIA Flap Draws Cries of Transparency Lies - HUMAN EVENTS

FOIA Flap Draws Cries of Transparency Lies - HUMAN EVENTS: "After taxpayers bailed out the financial sector amid much public outcry last year, political and open-government observers are wondering how the Securities and Exchange Commission will now be allowed to skirt certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests under a new federal law.

Tucked inside a bill revamping the financial industry, signed by President Obama on July 21, is a provision that allows an exemption for the SEC to ignore certain FOIA requests. The FOIA dodge came to light when journalists from Fox Business Network discovered the SEC’s new public records loophole, an action the network’s attorney dubbed “a backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC’s failures secret.”

While big business defenders say the FOIA exemption appropriately protects certain disclosures for financial institutions, allowing the agency to work more effectively, others call it overbroad and another example of what they claim is the Obama Administration’s failed promise for renewed transparency in Washington.

“In general and across the board, it’s always a serious problem when the government tries to hide something,” says Mike Foley, a professor of journalism at the University of Florida and former executive editor of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper.