Iowa’s three state universities made a U-turn this summer, and they now are headed down the road toward secrecy with some hiring decisions.
The about-face should trouble
There are some high-minded legal principles written into Iowa laws and rulings by our state’s Supreme Court.
But in recent weeks, one of those sound principles has run
When the Iowa Legislature wrote the state’s public records law 50 years ago, lawmakers wanted to guarantee that anyone could obtain copies of state and local government records that
COVID-19 has Iowans wanting more information from federal, state and local governments to guide life-or-death decisions raised by the unprecedented pandemic.
Is it safe to go to
The First Amendment isn’t long, but it certainly packs a lot of angst into those few words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemb
Sunshine Week will be observed across the nation next week. In Iowa, the sunshine next week will be obscured by clouds --- at least when it comes to citizen access to videos recorded by law officers on their squad car cameras and body cameras during incidents in which police shoot someone or when of
IowaWatch co-founder Stephen J. Berry called for rebuilding trust in the news media with better media literacy among Americans but also on journalists to adhere to strong ethics during remarks at the 2018 Celebrating a Free Press and Open Government Banquet in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sept. 27, 2018. We
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Stephen J. Berry, whose push for journalists to work thoroughly and ethically led him to co-found the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch, will be the annual Celebrating a Free Press and Open Government Banquet’s guest speaker in Des Moine
There was snow and ice on the ground in Burlington on the morning of January 6, 2015. About 10:30, police were summoned to where Autumn and Gabriel Steele were arguing outside their house.
My role as executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council has taken me from border to border in our state.
The message I’ve preached at each stop
