The Freedom of Information Act - Essay Example

Even the First Amendment is deemed insufficient to protect citizens’ rights to information access (Halperin 1985, 114).

Concerns have risen to the surface regarding who decides which information is to be made available to the public. Even after reforms and expansion of the law had taken place, most agencies cannot release information within the twenty-day median timeline. In addition, two questions still linger on every information request that gets filed: (1) what information should be released; and (2) what information should be withheld (Martin 2008, 60).

As a public affairs professional, I acknowledge the precarious situation policymakers and federal agencies are forced to deal with. There is a fine line between what can be disclosed and what needs to be hidden. This is a balancing act that policymakers need to deal with whenever the handling of information is involved in every bill that gets debated in the halls of the legislative. On the other hand, federal agencies need to carefully interpret and understand the laws which govern the processing and releasing of the requested information by the public. Braman (2009) showed how much information technology has changed how the United States Constitution protects civil liberties and democratic processes. On the other hand, Rich (2011) disclosed how national security concerns may affect how citizens’ right to privacy might be violated.