back in 2006, 2007, a former bbc producer anne now everyone is asked under the freedom of information were told there were no files. and now we have lord dyson yesterday quoting liberally from files which somehow have suddenly appeared. what does that tell us? we can only conclude from that that somebody back in 2006, 07, what an investigation and the truth. how can you just say, well, these things happen. that was a deliberate act and i think they were blocking by bbc management of the trip went on for some time after that, i think. so i think the bbc has to rebuild the trust and rebuild the assumption that when the bbc says something, it is true. because on this occasion, he did not turn out to be the case. ,, . , did not turn out to be the case. ,, ., , ., ~ case. stewart purvis, thank you so much- _ case. stewart purvis, thank you so much. after _ case. stewart purvis, thank you so much. after11 _ case. stewart purvis, thank you so much. after 11 days - case. stewart purvis, thank you so much. after 11 days of- so much. after 11 days of fighting, israeland so much. after 11 days o

>> this is all about the freedom of information act, you can ask for government documents under that ision on memoranda. that is why they release third degree to the group, and it applied for the freedom of information act. but judge jackson said i have seen the memo. it's written as a foregone conclusion that the justice department would not seek to prosecute the president for obstruction of justice and she includes in her opinion this handy guide to what the memo actually says, but it is redacted and this is the part that she says should be pub welcome along with the entire memo. she is basically saying the d.o.j. says we don't have to release this because it was advisory. she says i have seen it, there is no advice, it's strategic advice about how to communicate the fact that he will not be prosecuted, but it is written from the assumption that she will not be prosecuted. and those involved in drafting this were also involved in drafting the attorney general's four-page letter to congress. they have not said if they're going to appeal this. >> pete williams, live for us there. pete

old piece of law going back to the colonial times, which meant any information created by a state official was a state secret. that was the beginning of a nationwide movement in india for freedom of information legislation. and it eventually led the indian government to adopt a law about freedom of information. now i visited india about six months after that law was adopted in 2006 and i met an activist who was working in one of the villages in rajasthan. so i asked her has the law made any difference and she told me that in the village where she was working the state provides food for public works and now the villagers go and the ask the local official how many bags of food did the government send you and he's obliged to show them the docket with the bags so it says 100 bags. then the villagers go and count how many bags have been distributed and they come back and say you distributed only 87 bags. so what happened to 13 other bags and you can see very clearly from that how the dialogue how the relationship between the state and the individual state and the citizen is changing. another question from the audience. how do you help women in muslim countries as an example iran go

amy berman jackson sharply criticized barr, saying he was disingenuous about the process, a freedom of information lawsuit brought by a government transparency group that sought the 2019 memo but the doj refused to provide it, saying it represented the private advice of lawyers. barr could not immediately be reached for comment. joining me now, a law professor at nyu and nbc news legal analyst. also the author of "where law ends inside the mueller investigation." great to have you with us. based on judge jackson's ruling, what do you expect to see in this memo? >> well, this decision by judge jackson, who doesn't mince any words, is a bit of a bombshell in two ways. one, she -- it is not new to your audience that the attorney general misled the american public in his so-called four-page summary. what is new is that judge jackson has seen in camera, meaning she, herself, has seen the memoranda that she has ordered to be disclosed, and she says in her decision that it provides further evidence of the deception played by the attorney general, including his statement to the american public that robert

douses but also in his 3 pts and roads and that's that's what's going on for the time being or freedom of information group reporters without borders has accused israel of war crimes following saturday's earth strike but the sort of tower block in the gaza offices of a number of world news media. later also contain private apartments and businesses and was in fact he waited prior to be attack after a warning from israel the israeli army claimed hamas was using the building to coordinate rocket attacks the un's head expressed dismay at the destruction of the media offices in gaza and on the growing civilian casualties in the conflict over we talked to an al jazeera journalist who worked there. now of course our picture cut now we will be real will not be able to deliver a picture to the world it's very difficult to me to see this image it's very hard for many years in working in this place covering the news coverage of the both the attacks in gaza now there's no brick sure from it is there obviously more something you know i feel very burg. i want to say that we will we will continue to deliver anothe

back in 2006, 2007, a former bbc producer now a freelancer asked under the freedom of information act yesterday quoting liberally from files which somehow have suddenly appeared. what does that tell us? that can only conclude that somebody backin that can only conclude that somebody back in 2006 and 2007, blocked an investigation, blocked the truth and how can you just say these things have been? there was a deliberate act and i think they are blocking by abusing management of the truth and it went on for quite some time after that. i it went on for quite some time after that. ~ �* �* it went on for quite some time after that. 4' �* �* ., , ., it went on for quite some time after that. 4' �* �* .,, ., , that. i think the bbc has to rebuild the trust. rebuilt _ that. i think the bbc has to rebuild the trust. rebuilt the _ that. i think the bbc has to rebuild the trust. rebuilt the assumption l the trust. rebuilt the assumption that when the bbc says something, it is true because on this occasion, it did not turn out to be the case. passionately disputed and so too is the media coverage

2016, wikileaks released a searchable archive of more than 30,000 e-mails obtained through freedom of information server while she was secretary of state. internal wikileaks correspondence said the purpose of creating the archive was "because it's useful and will annoy hillary" and because "we want to be seen as a resource or player in the u.s. election." male: you've been taking an interest, i understand, in the whole issue of the e-mails she sent, using her private server. do you have any of the undisclosed e-mails? julian: well, taking interes i think, is putting it mildly. we have published 32,000 of them and some analysis. we have upcoming leaks in relation to hillary clinton which is great we actually have wikileaks has a very big year ahead. male: but some of the ones that have not yet come into the public domain, you are planning to put out? julian: we have e-mails relating to hillary clinton, which are pending publication. that is correct. ♪♪♪ michael: in moscow, the russians had begun their own campaign to undermine hillary clinton. the russian miliry inlligence ancy, the g, established

freedom of information group reporters without borders has accused israel of war crimes following saturday's airstrike the destroyed a tower block housing the gaza offices of a number of world news media. it also contained private apartments and businesses and was evacuated prior to the attack after a warning from israel the israeli army claimed to mosques was using the building to coordinate rocket attacks and un sir secretary-general is among those who have expressed dismay at the destruction of the media offices in gaza and the growing civilian casualties in the conflict overall we spoke to an al jazeera journalist who worked in the building. now of course our picture cut now we will be real will not be able to deliver a picture to the world it's very difficult to me to see this image it's very hot for many years in working in this place covering the news coverage of the blows the attacks in gaza now there's no picture from which is the office anymore some think you know i feel very bad. i want to say that we will continue to deliver other message look at you do to cover the news it doesn

of the idea that israel respects. democratic freedoms and the free. flow of information notably free coverage over its own war in gaza ok marlon bashara that very has analysis live from doha marwan thank you very much indeed. a well process are underway in the palestinian territory and around the world to assess your continues to bombard gaza from the air and the grounds this was the scene and i'll be in the occupied west bank her anger over past and present injustices has been building stand ins are marking nakba day over the catastrophe the 750000 palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in the wars that led to the establishment of israel in 1948 you know abraham is in ramallah in the occupied west bank leader what's happening. we're hearing live ammunition being sought by the protesters by the israeli army there are more than one confrontation points in the occupied west bank and their eyes to a temple students who are being injured 9 of them are in close or a village south of nablus which is a side that is. usually. subject to a lot of attacks as you sai

the book is titled "baseless: my search for ruins in the freedom of information act." he science of highly contagious viruses. and book includes evidence for example that lyme disease is one of the germs that escaped from one of our germ warfare laboratories on palm island off the coasts of connecticut and long island, new york. in december, most exhaustive piece yet written in the popular press, baker wrote an article titled "the lab leak hypothesis," for decades scientists have been hotwiring viruses in hopes of preventing a pandemic, not causing one, but what if? president biden has given the administration 90 days to determine if covid-19 began in nature or a lab. joining us now, nicholson baker. latest book "baseless: my search for secrets in the ruins of the freedom of information act." thanks for joining us tonight. i for one could discuss all 17 books beginning with your master work, "the mezzanine," very first book. but so many candidates for masterwork. including this one. reading it during the pandemic was a completely different experience for me than it woul

and that's that's what's going on for the time being well freedom of information group reporters with fell into borders has accused israel of war crimes following saturday's or a strike at the start of a tower block housing the gal's the offices of a number of world news media take a look. it's also contain private apartments and businesses and we'll see if i can wave it prior to being after an hour's warning from israel the israeli army claim from us was using the building to coordinate rocket attacks from the un's head meanwhile expressed dismay over growing civilian casualties in the conflict and last started out the destruction of the media offices and so we spoke to an al-jazeera journalist who worked in the building. now how worse our picture cut now we will be we will not be able to deliver a picture to the world it's very difficult for me to see this image it's very hard for many years in working to this place covering the news coverage of the both the attacks in gaza now there's no big cheer from it is there obviously more so i think you know i feel very bad. i want to say th

and after the freedom of information act, you could go to archives in washington d.c. and do the research and the files of the government. and they found what was called, the smoking gun. meaning they found the document that proved there was no military necessity at the time of my father's arrest and when the japanese americans were incarcerated. there was never any evidence of any spying hearing any espionage from the japanese americans and actually, at the time of my father's supreme court hearing, in 1944, the department of justice had withheld evidence, had destroyed evidence and had altered evidence. so on that basis, there's a judicial law term called quorum no base. and quorum no base means an error has been made before us. an error has been made before the court. and so, on that basis, they were able to reopen my father supreme court case and it was proven that there was government misconduct at the time. and his federal conviction was overruled or vacated. and that means, he no longer had a federal prison record bus his case is still on the supreme court record

rights groups and analysts who call this an attack on journalism that this is an attack on freedom of information and the free flow of information what do you say ok i don't think this is an attack by any means on the media this was an attack to you in squarely on hamas the question we have to be asking though is what i would these media companies companies brands to an internationally recognized terrorist organization we know for a fact now that hamas had operations within that building we not for a fact but hamas had their research and development and their technical units their planning and carrying out terrorist attacks and all the time under the noses of al-jazeera a.p. and the other tenants presumably that were building so the question is why were they there and did they. and how did they not that hamas was not under their noses the entire time at the end of the day. israel is entitled to the right of self-defense israel. and trying to live in freedom it is that some us that is responsible for placing a big piece of their terrorist operations in there in a civilian building an infrastructur

we have during the obama administration, we conducted very limited number of freedom of information -freedom of navigation exercises in the south china sea. we became more aggressive in response to the chinese during the trump administration. and those exercises have continued under president biden. but i think -- i think xi jinping has decided that bringing hong kong and taiwan, bringing china into one china's integral parts is one of the objectives of his policy and his time in power. i think he sees this as his legacy. he's already moved against hong kong. so i think that the only thing that will work here is -- is for it to be clear that there is potentially a very high cost for china in trying to militarily take taiwan. and i personally believe the odds of an intentional takeover, a military attack on taiwan, at least for the foreseeable future, are actually pretty low. the consequences are just too catastrophic for china if the u.s. reacts. and they can't know how the u.s. will react. so i think that there are a number of other ways that china has of bringing pressure to bear on

be a survival strategy in a country that has just introduced yet more legislation curbing freedom of information online the listening posts flow phillips now on the turkish journalists who have swapped the broadcast airwaves for life on the. turkey's interior minister the president. met about. marry this down by a central figure in the main opposition party. but she's still the shame of. actress. i mean what having comment on this is that i must thank all the gas consumption aid listen to me. nor wash out that. we started filling the vacuum journalists have not been able to conduct independent and free journalism on turkey's mainstream channels so there's been a shift towards social media it's like when the minister of finance posted his resignation on instagram everyone kept quiet street. at midnight i launched a live broadcast breaking news story. welcome. at 3 am 150000 people are still watching us these of surreal numbers. the resignation of the finance minister was big just not on t.v. . the mainstream didn't touch it perhaps because the minister of finance just happens to be president one

he got hold of the report after a freedom of information request.. it tells you about consultants not turning up overnight, it tells you about a lack of escalation. not only had the public not seen it but derek discovered the regulator, which is meant to ensure hospitals in england are safe, hadn't either. they were was shocked. they were shocked. genuinely shocked. how can you regulate something as important as a hospital without knowing at least what the extreme risks are? the east kent hospitals trust says it is deeply sorry that it failed the family and apologised unreservedly to other families for the things that could have been done differently. it says it used the royal college's findings... ..reporting the findings and progress to the regulators. and it continues to make improvements to its maternity service. bbc panorama wanted to find out how many of these reports were out there. we sent our own freedom of information request to all uk nhs hospitals asking for any review in the last five years. in response, we were told about 111 reports a

>> they were obtained by "the new york post" through the freedom of information act for americans of public trust in what the email show it's several communications between the cdc and the american federation of teachers, the second largest teachers union in the country in the days leading up to the cdc's release of its guidelines for reopening schools. here's just one of those emails. the human rights, "thank you for your continued openness for our input. it would be great to see some variation of the following for updates of the guidelines may be necessary." one thing leader, nearly identical line appeared in the cdc's official guidelines. both the cdc and the union said this type of communication is both routine and normal with the union telling fox that the ast represents 1.9 million educators. naturally we have been in regular touch with agencies in the policy including the cdc. it is open for impersonal earning four days a week. as for what the president thinks will happen in the fall, listen to white senior white house advisor and needed done over the weekend. >> we have all s

analyst john welcome back thanks max good to see you again oh all right john so you filed a freedom of information request with the federal reserve bank what information are you seeking from there why are you seeking it and what has been the response i am after a memo that was drafted in 2009 by the staff and is simply referred to in transcript as the staff there was a 2009 meeting in june during which time the federal reserve f o m c was discussing how do we reduce the balance sheet because now we've undertaken the expansion of balance sheet we started quantitative easing we started buying these assets and expanded balance sheet f o n c members in the june 2000 i mean you're looking down the road talking about you know it's easy to expand the balance sheet because we can print money out of nothing how do we contract a balance sheet and one of the ways that was discussed was using federal reserve bills not federal reserve notes not treasury bills fed bills then one of the participants in the meeting jeffrey lacker who was the president of the richmond fed at that time said i was stunned to learned

we are here to teach people how to file a freedom of information act request so that they can see and the dots between what they are suddenly getting in emails in their schools and what kind of money is being spent on that. so we are really here as a resource for lots of things. and we are inundated, we are reports and submissions, from emails and parents from across the political spectrum from every single racial group and every single socioeconomic class. i have not seen much bipartisan recently, and it almost feels like a tidal wave. >> that's exactly right. and it hasn't even been a year of this before people start to fight back but i'm glad it's happening. last question to you, have you seen pushback from schools? how are they responding to this? >> absolutely. we see pushback from schools all the time. we see them refuse to respond to questions in emails and we see them telling parents that they don't have the right to live in their children's online assignments. we see them refusing to respond to emails and then we see them shifting the definitions and making people feel like t

charges we're asking that criminal charges be brought against this deputy will be filing a freedom of information act request immediately this week for the other not 11 audiotape the body cam footage is very poor you can't really see anything we need to know if there's dash cam footage and of course and we will be you know our investigation and likely filing a civil rights suit on behalf of mr brown let me ask you this is there just an issue about training i mean look my memory of my memory of this when i read the facts was that the officer who was heard on the body came saying where's his gun where's his gun what's the what's your take on that i mean he obviously believed there was a gun there what what what is that about yes and and there that appears to be a breakdown in communication between 911 dispatch and the deputy full 90 seconds before. mr brown had informed. just asked that he did not have a gun did not have a weapon and we believe there was a failure of communication between the dispatcher and the officer it also may have been this one dispatch lady was trying to handle communications

charges we're asking that criminal charges be brought against this deputy will be filing a freedom of information act request immediately this week for the other not 11 audiotape the body cam footage is very poor you can't really see anything we need to know if there's dash cam footage and of course and we will be so you know our investigation and likely filing a civil rights suit on behalf of mr brown let me ask you this is there just an issue about training i mean look my memory of my memory of this when i read the facts was that the officer who was heard on the body came saying where's his gun where's his gun what's the what's your take on that i mean he obviously believed there was a gun there what what what is that about yes and in there that appears to be a breakdown in communication between 911 dispatch and the deputy full 90 seconds before. mr brown had informed. just asked that he did not have a gun did not have a weapon and we believe there was a failure of communication between the dispatcher and the officer it also may have been this one dispatch and the lady was trying to handle comm

charges we're asking that criminal charges be brought against this deputy will be filing a freedom of information act request immediately this week for the other not 11 audiotape the body cam footage is very poor you can't really see anything we need to know if there's dash cam footage and of course and we will be you know our investigation and likely filing a civil rights suit on behalf of mr brown let me ask you this is there just an issue about training i mean look my memory of my memory of this when i read the facts was that the officer who was heard on the body came saying where's his gun where's his gun what's the what's your take on that i mean he obviously believed there was a gun there what what what is that about yes and in there that appears to be a breakdown in communication between 911 dispatch and the deputy full 90 seconds before. mr brown had informed. dispatch that he did not have a gun did not have a weapon and we believe there was a failure of communication between the dispatcher and the officer it also may have been that this one dispatch lady was trying to handle communicatio

of course from the united states side right of freedom of information act documents, from the fbi, fromhe cia, and then there are memoirs, some of it was from interviews, former tv general, provided some information, cia officers, fbi officers who told me things that i didn't want to include in the book but they provided me with leaves. >> despite what many people in the world think the cia is reluctant, like really reluctant to participate in journalistic operations but many -- have had no such reluctance. as you noted this evening, it was certainly one of those. the soviet agency task for decades had a presence around this building from i think 1933 right when roosevelt recognized it. everybody knew here. everyone in washington knew that everyone in the press knew that they were journalists but there was also a cover for espionage. i guess my question to you is how is the task news agency able to get away with this? was that fbi also operating in the building watching that? because it's like here we are. where the soviet spies. and everybody knows it >> it's remarkable. that i find ve

opinion and more of it that's through out the opinion, demonstrates in this foya case, a freedom of informationigation, normally a judge would give the government a lot of deference regarding not releasing internal legal deliberations, and in this case the judge is saying, no, i don't believe the justice department. i don't believe the arguments that the justice department made for me. so, therefore, i'm going to order release of this memo. >> i think what you're hitting on is the bigger import of all of this. you've got a federal judge saying the last justice department and the former attorney general, they aren't credible and essentially lied. even in this crazy world that we often find ourselves living in, this seems like a really big deal. >> as a former justice department lawyer, your credibility is basically the most important quality that a lawyer in the justice department has. so the fact that this was -- the judge's memo is not just directed at attorney general bar as an individual. what she was saying is he was disingenuous, but also the department of justice was disingenuous to her.

bbc panorama said freedom of information request to all uk nhs hospitals asking for any review in thebeen shared with the regulator in full. most concern potential patient safety issues. doctor bill has investigated major nhs candles and we shared the findings with him. i we shared the findings with him. i think we may need to consider making this a _ think we may need to consider making this a legal— think we may need to consider making this a legal duty of trusts that they— this a legal duty of trusts that they have to disclose when these investigations have been going on. nhs england told us there are robust and transparent systems to ensure hospitals learn and improve services. they said all independent reviews should be made available to health commissioners and regulators. the health regulator in england said it is very disappointing that despite this very clear expectation we continue to see examples of a lack of transparency.— we continue to see examples of a lack of transparency. there should be a law that _ lack of transparency. there should be a law that says _ lack of tran

justice department memo secret, william barr insisted that the memo was protected from a freedom of information act request because it was used in his deliberations about whether donald trump would be charged with obstruction of justice because of the evidence revealed in the mueller report. judge amy berman jackson said in her opinion that william barr was being disingenuous. the dictionary defined disingenuous this way, not candid or sincere, typical that one knows less about something than one really does. i have course thing that he was lying, but then i'm not a federal judge who has to be very careful about accusing someone of a crime, because if william barr was lying to judge jackson about the way he used that memo, then he also lied under oath to congress about the way he used that memo. way the deputy attorney general and i conducted a careful review of the report with our staff and legal advisers and we concluded that the evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation was not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice. >> the only pro

we are here to teach people how to file freedom of information act requests so that they can see andnect the dots between what they are suddenly getting in emails from their schools, what their children are bringing home, and what money is being spent on that. so we are really here as a resource for lots of things. a really important point to make about this is we are inundated every single day with reports and submissions and documents and screenshots and emails from parents across the political spectrum, from every single racial group, from every single, you know, socioeconomic class. i have not seen much of anything bipartisan recently as this is a bipartisan phenomenon that almost feels like a tidal wave. >> tucker: that's exactly -- that's exactly right. i'm not even going to ask you why it has been a year of this before people started to fight back, but i'm just glad it is happening. really grateful it is happening. last question to you, erica. have you seen pushback from schools, and how are they responding to this? >> oh, absolutely, we see pushback from schools all the time.

that's something ordinarily the freedom of information act protects against what are called deliberative documents, predecision documents that inform the way attorney general or someone might make a decision. judge said this is disingenuous because you made the decision where you had the document, post hoc rationalization. that's all she needed to dismiss the case. to go further and call for investigation is not the job of the judge. job is evaluate the case before her, not recommend new case. using that word went far, probably justified. barr tried to block her from reading the report and she got it anyway and before she wrote her opinion she read entire report and her opinion reflects what's in the actual report. >> is there legal jeopardy for former attorney general william barr in your view given that he did testify to congress saying the same thing that the judge is now saying is not true? >> absolutely. like every attorney that surrounds himself with donald trump he's looking for criminal liability. i'm sure by this point he's hired counsel because he's being accused of federal jud