Much of the credit for the Center’s FOIA work belongs to our research editor, Peter Newbatt Smith. The FOIA Project report said the Center was among the “small number of clearly dominant players” in filing FOIA suits.” The report went on to say that the Center “has been a notable pioneer in creating and sustaining a new model for the delivery of investigative reporting,” adding that the Center “also clearly demonstrated that it is not necessary to be a large legacy news organization to sustain an active profile in litigating FOIA matters.” Four of the six cases are still pending, while two have been settled. We filed an additional six cases last year, bringing that total to 23 lawsuits since 2000. That put the Center behind only the New York Times. In fact, the Center ranked second among outlets in its filing of FOIA suits since 2000, with a total of 17 at the time, according to research by the FOIA Project, an initiative from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Research Clearinghouse. The Center for Public Integrity was cited in a survey last year as among the news media leaders in its use of FOIA litigation to obtain data from government agencies. While a lot of records are available at our fingertips, others require a more dogged form of pursuit: requests under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, and not infrequently, lawsuits to pry the records free. Peter Smith, the Center for Public Integrity’s research editor.Ī vital part of holding those in power accountable is having the data to track what they’re doing.
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