Club marks Sunshine Week with FOIA program, 6:30 pm March 14

During Sunshine Week, March 10-16, the National Press Club Journalism Institute and the Club's Professional Affairs and Freedom of the Press Committees plan to help journalists and others obtain information that the government might not want them to have.

Reporters and watchdogs will offer tips on how to use the Freedom of Information Act to ferret out documents and data at a panel scheduled 6:30 to 8 p.m. on March 14.

Club members can attend at no charge; others pay $10. Click here for tickets. For more information, contact Julie Schoo at [email protected].

The event is one of several this week designed to elevate the importance of public access to the inner workings of government and emphasize the people's right to know.

The panelists are:

* Award-winning reporter Charles Babcock, now an editor at
Bloomberg News who coordinates FOIA requests

* Randy Rabinowitz, director of regulatory policy for the Center
for Effective Government

* Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, which is trying to get governments to publish more information in more useful formats for
journalists and the public

* Lisette Garcia of Judicial Watch, a former journalist for the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star and the Associated Press, who has used FOIA for several investigations

The moderator will be National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane, a reporter with Bloomberg News a member of the NPC Journalism Institute board.