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Aya Kawano

NEW YORK Press efforts to thwart government secrecy are moving forward on two fronts as Washington bureau chiefs unite to more aggressively cover federal government attempts to hide information and the head of Associated Press offers plans for a new open government lobbying center in Washington, D.C.

"We wanted to raise awareness that this is a growing problem for us," says Andy Alexander, D.C. bureau chief for Cox Newspapers and new chair of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' FOI Committee, who is leading the bureau chiefs' effort. "We have a special obligation to be more aware of threats to public information."

Alexander's comments followed his participation in a May 3 luncheon at the National Press Club that included speakers from the First Amendment Center, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the new Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. Nineteen Washington bureau chiefs attended and agreed to boost their efforts to cover more issues related to government secrecy.

"It was an interesting discussion and out of it was an agreement that we all need to write more about secrecy," says Alexander, who created a new government secrecy beat in his office three months ago. "We have two people writing about it as part of their responsibilities."

While the bureau chiefs did not formulate a specific plan or agenda, the group agreed to put more resources on coverage of federal government attempts to keep information from the public, with an emphasis on how that affects readers, not just the press.

"The real issue is telling our readers what it is they are not getting," says Vickie Walton-James, Chicago Tribune Washington bureau chief. "We need to pay attention to this, and not just when a big case pops up."

For Tom DeFrank, who began covering Washington as a Newsweek correspondent 36 years ago and now heads the New York Daily News bureau, the need for prying open government doors has never been greater. "This administration is the most aggressively unhelpful that I have ever covered, and that goes back to Nixon," he says. "This White House and administration are far more secretive than the Nixon crowd."

Peter Copeland, Washington bureau chief of Scripps Howard News Service, says he plans to ratchet up the privacy beat even more. "It started as a beat concerning privacy aspects of the Internet, but has evolved into secrecy related to terrorism," he explains.

Bureau chiefs also are urging their reporters to get more information on the record and stop allowing federal officials to hide behind the mask of anonymity. "We need to push for more transparency," says Alexander, adding that reporters too often will allow a high-ranking official, like National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice or a cabinet member, to brief them behind the mask of a vague attribution. Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times bureau chief since 1983, said such a practice must be challenged more. "It is happening more frequently in this administration," he said. "They speak less on the record than their predecessors."

Copeland is pushing his staff to get more information through public records instead of nameless sources. "Get documents or letters or testimony on the record," he says.

At the same time, reporters are being trained to look for secrecy abuses in government and bring any denial of access to their bosses for review. "Staffers must let us know when they run into efforts to make things secret that shouldn't be," says David Cook, bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor. "We can find ways to cover that."

AP President and CEO Tom Curley, meanwhile, unveiled a plan on May 7 for a "media advocacy center" to lobby for open government in Washington. "The government is pushing hard for secrecy," Curley said in a speech announcing the plan. "We must push back equally hard for openness. I think it is time to consider establishment of a focused lobbying effort in Washington ... The essence of the FOI Act is that government information is open and accessible to the public unless there is a very good reason to keep it secret."

But in a conversation with E&P, the AP chief stopped short of offering any detailed plans for the center, saying he wanted to bring together various journalism advocacy groups first to discuss the need. Among the center's efforts, however, may be to push for a federal reporters' shield law.