40th Anniversary of FOIA

This month is the 40th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, which sets up the process by which the public can get access to unpublished government information.

The National Security Archive at George Washington University has a page about the history of the FOIA since its signing by President Johnson in 1966.

Also of interest, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government has just posted a report on who is using the FOIA (PDF). According to this report, which analyzed FOIA requests to 11 Cabinet level Departments and Agencies in September, 2005, about two thirds were from commercial businesses, three percent from non-profits, and six percent from the media.