This came from the `privacy digest' mailing list. Of particular interest is the opening & `onlining' of government databases. Also note that the noted Sen. Leahy has expressed serious concern over the Clipper and is chairing hearings on it. `mood of declassification'? `require more openess throughout the bureacracy'? `electronic mail to improve citizen participation'? WOW! Some words that have been coined to describe this kind of thing for future sound-bite reference: `modemocracy' (saw this in a Compuserve magazine) or `netocracy' (my own coining) ===cut=here=== [ Original posting source: nigel.allen@canrem.com in igc:alt.news-media -- MODERATOR ] White House Official Outlines Freedom of Information Strategy at 'Information Summit' To: National Desk, Media Writer Contact: Ellen Nelson of The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, 615-321-9588 NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 13 -- A White House official today outlined a broad open government strategy for the Clinton administration, throwing support behind legislation to apply the Freedom of Information Act to electronic records. "At the Clinton White House, most of the debate over the E-mail system is about how we can interconnect it to public services rather than how we can destroy the records or tear out the hard drives before the subpoenas come to reach us," said John Podesta, assistant to the president and staff secretary. Podesta made his comments in front of 70 participants in the nation's first Freedom of Information Summit, sponsored by The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. Though the economy dominates the headlines, Podesta said the new administration was quietly working across a broad front to open government. His "predictions for the first year," included: -- Working with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to win approval this session for a bill allowing access to dozens of electronic databases in the federal government. -- Developing an electronic mail system within the federal government to improve citizen participation in government. -- Making the government's archives available on the nation's "information highway," and appointing a national archivist "who cares more about preserving history than about preserving his job." --Creating a "mood of declassification" with new executive orders from the president outlining what government may keep secret. -- "Reinventing government" under initiatives developed by the fall by Vice President Gore to require more openness on the part of civil servants throughout the bureaucracy. Podesta also pledged lobbying reform and political reform to "get rid of the soft money in campaigns." The Freedom of Information Act may need strengthening in addition to electronic access, he said. Pinched by a dozen years of tight information policy, news organizations have sent President Clinton a freedom of information policy paper calling for wholesale personnel changes in FOIA-related jobs, junking the secrecy classifications of President Reagan's Executive Order 12356, overhauling the Freedom of Information Act and ending military censorship of war reporting. "People working on behalf of the public on more openness in government at all levels are heartened by the prospect of the White House taking the lead in this area," said Paul McMasters, executive director of The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. The conference, sponsored by The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, is focusing on issues ranging from the Clinton administration's policies on open government to restrictions on public access to crime, accident and disaster scenes. The conference, open to the public, is at the Stouffer Hotel in downtown Nashville. Speakers on the Clinton FOI Agenda included Richard Schmidt Jr., general counsel to the American Society of Newspaper Editors and partner in the law firm of Cohn & Marks in Washington, D.C.; Theresa Amato, the director of the FOI Clearinghouse in Washington, D.C. and staff counsel for Public Citizens Litigation Group in Washington, D.C.; and Quinlan Shea, former Carter administration official who discussed problems of access to government. Former American hostage Terry Anderson will give the keynote address at the dinner tonight. The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University is an independent operating program of The Freedom Forum. The Center's mission is to foster a better public understanding of and appreciation for First Amendment rights and values, including freedom of religion, free speech and press, the right to petition government and peaceful assembly. The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, international organization dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. It is supported entirely by an endowment established by Frank E. Gannett in 1935 that has grown to more than $700 million in diversified managed assets. Its headquarters is The Freedom Forum World Center in Arlington, Va. -30- -- Canada Remote Systems - Toronto, Ontario 416-629-7000/629-7044