Free tool launches to simplify FOIA for journalists

by IJNet
Oct 30, 2018 in Investigative Journalism

How the FOIA Wiki can help journalists access information, media censorship in Kashmir and more in this week's Digital Media Mash Up, produced by the Center for International Media Assistance.

Just launched: A tool that will make life easier for FOIA reporters

If confusion is the first step to knowledge, FOIA users must be geniuses. Fee categories. Pre-determination agency actions. Multitrack processing. Administrative appeals. Glomar responses. In some ways, the FOIA is as impenetrable as it is helpful, but a new resource wants to change all that: FOIA Wiki, which launched in beta today. (Columbia Journalism Review, 10/3)

How media censorship is bringing journalists out on the streets of Kashmir

One of the most difficult things to do from a conflict zone is to report about it. And if it's a conflict zone like Jammu and Kashmir, the media there often gets squeezed into a tight spot. Something similar happened this week when the Jammu and Kashmir government banned the publication of Srinagar-based English daily Kashmir Reader, calling it a threat to “public tranquility.”

A day after the ban, a bunch of journalists from the Valley took to the streets to protest against the move. Dozens holding placards came out on the road in solidarity with the newspaper. (The Huffington Post, 10/6)

Constraints and opportunities - what role for media development in countering violent extremism

Media developers around the world work with institutions, organizations and individuals to ensure reliable and professional information is available to communities and to spark and encourage responsible debate that is key to good governance.

By extension, the fight against both terrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) stresses the importance of media development, but also increasingly puts this work in the spotlight. (International Media Support, 9/2016)

CIMA offers the Mash Up free via email. Sign up here.

Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via scribbletaylor.