By Alejandra Xanic
Independent
Mexican journalist Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab shared a Pulitzer Prize with New
York Times reporter David Barstow for their investigation into Walmart's
expansion in Mexico, shrouded by corruption and bribery.
Xanic attributed the
Prize to Mexico's young Freedom of Information Act; the investigation required
more than 800 FOIA requests. Here she shares tips on how journalists
can use their own countries' freedom of information laws.
Feeling
frustrated? Tired of searching and not finding what you need? Don’t
despair. These tricks can ease your suffering and help you enjoy the process of
requesting public information.
1.
Explore alternate routes.
Before taking the painful route of filing a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request, it’s worth checking out if the information is available in a
more accessible place, like among the files of a source, or in a
specialized search engine, for instance.
Don’t be afraid to try the “advanced
search” options on the Internet. It’s also worth trying to find out if someone
else has already asked –and obtained– the information you’re looking for (in
Mexico there’s a search engine that lets you take a look at the history of
public information requests).
2.
Study the tool.
Carefully reading public information laws will help you narrow the focus. In
Mexico, federal law requires officials to provide the information which is located in
their files. This is a hint: officials will only give you the information that
already exists. They will not generate information, nor answer questions.
What do the laws in your country say?
Learning
how information is handled will help too: for how long is information stored?
Do they move it from one place to another as deadlines expire? They usually
have a procedure file (where they keep documents from the last three years),
concentration files (three to ten years), and the historical archive (more than
ten years). It’s well worth doing some journalistic work before sending letters
to Santa.
3.
Be careful what you ask for. In
Mexico, the law allows officials to deliver only existing information, and
officials can only do what they're authorized to do under the Public
Servants law. The marriage of these two laws means an official may deny
access to a certain document we’re asking for, for reasons such as being stored
under the name “memorandum."
It
is important to know the name they give to things. Learning about the rules and
laws that regulate public information within governmental agencies is a must.
4.
What do they mean by information? Normally, that’s how they refer
to paper material, audio, video or movie files, photographs, databases,
e-mails. It includes materials generated by government agencies but also
information that the government is safeguarding but was generated by
individuals, like studies or audits. If you have sources within these agencies,
you can identify in which platform the information you need is stored before
launching your request.
5.
Do some talking. Not
all agencies have a Thiago Silva as a defender in the area of transparency.
Talking to those officials before, during and after making a request will save
you time and improve your aim for several reasons. First, you’ll verify if that
agency does have the kind of information you’re seeking. Second, you’ll learn
where they keep it and how complicated it is to get to it. Third, you’ll find
out if you’re filing your request clearly and correctly. And it will also
help you with the most basic stuff, such as finding out if they have a scanner
and what’s the maximum of pages they can upload to the system.
6.
Be prepared for pushback. There
are officials who are very defensive, so it’s very important that you have a
plan of action. When should you ask what to whom? Should you do a general
search or a more targeted search? Do you ask them to send the information over,
or to hand you copies, or to review the records personally? Where else may
copies of this information be found with easier access?
7.
Your identity. You
don’t need to identify yourself as a reporter: the right to access public
information is for all citizens. However, some countries are luckier than
others. Some access laws state that citizens filing requests must identify
themselves and write down what information they need and why.
8.
The conspiracy theory.
A “no” for an answer does not always have to do with dark orders from above.
Often, behind a “no” there are very mundane and absurd reasons, like the person
in charge of the search being ill. Sometimes the fault is on us, for
writing bizarre and confusing requests. Talk to the officials beforehand so you
can avoid these sorts of accidents.
Mastering
the art of requesting information access has its secrets. It requires a lot of
pre-reporting in order to know the subject of your research, the type of
records that may exist and where they are. And also, to know who will be
reading our requests across the desk. You'll need reporting, testing and
patience; lots of patience.
Alejandra
Xanic von Bertrab is a trainer at the Investigative Reporting Initiative in the Americas, an
eight-country, cross-border reporting project by CONNECTAS and the
International Center for Journalists. She also received a Knight
International Journalism Award.
This
post originally appeared on the CONNECTAS site and is
republished on IJNet with permission. CONNECTAS is a nonprofit journalistic
initiative that promotes the production, exchange, training and dissemination
of information on key developmental issues of the Americas.
Main
image CC-licensed by Flickr via CyberHades.
Source: http://ijnet.org/
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