• Korean Security Journal
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• no.20
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• pp.365-392
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• 2009

The increased concern about national security in the U.S. after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has influenced public rights of access to government information and its legal foundation, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Public access to government information has been restricted at the policy level by a series of legislative and executive changes in FOIA after September 11, 2001, but the examination of statistics on FOIA implementation between fiscal years 1999 and 2004 shows that the strengthened national security measures did not have a considerable impact at the implementation level during this period. These contrasting findings might be due to the public officials' informal reaction to the criticism of the restriction on public access, bureaucratic inertia, and the use of new record categories not subject to FOIA.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.24
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• pp.1-31
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• 2010

This article aims to identify organizational factors that influence the performance of implementation of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and to investigate the strength and direction of their effects. Explanatory variables include administrative resources, organizational culture, litigation cost, and the complexity of FOIA requests. The study will analyze quantitative secondary data from official statistics of federal agencies and the 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey as well as qualitative data from semi-structured interviews of FOIA officers. The results of statistical analyses are as follows : FOIA funding significantly affects median processing time and number of requests pending. There is a significant relationship between bureaucratic culture and number of requests pending, but not between bureaucratic culture and number of requests pending. There exists a significant relationship between the cost of FOIA litigation to federal agencies and the performance of FOIA implementation. There exists a significant relationship between the complexity of FOIA requests and the performance of FOIA implementation. This study also has important implication in South Korea, which has been under a sharp confrontation with North Korea for more than 50 years. As illustrated by the conflict between people's right to know and national security during the investigation of recent Sinking of the ROKS Cheonan, efforts should be made to prepare legal and institutional mechanism for freedom of information policy which can maintain a balance between conflicting values as well as efficient information disclosure in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.265-294
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• 2014

The study aims to identify the procedural problems of the archival reference service through Freedom of Information Act. Since FOIA enacted in 1998, there has been a rapid increase of use of government information. However, most of academic users tend to be strongly dissatisfied with the user service. The authors argue that archival reference service through FOIA substantially prevents researchers from using archival records for their research and lower researcher's visits to archival institutions. For this, the study conducted 19 in-depth interviews of academic users and analyzed how FOIA influence academic user's information behaviors based on Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.35
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• pp.3-40
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• 2013

Establishment and expansion of a FOI regime is a fundamental basis for modern democracy. Informed decisions and supports by the people are critical to establishment of democratic institutions and policies. The best tool to make informed decisions and to ensure accountability is the FOI. For effective FOI, good records management is necessary requirement. This paper observes and analyses the development of the FOI in the U.S., the Open Government policy, and the government records management reforms under Obama Administration to search viable solutions for Korean FOI and public records management reforms. Major revisions and advancement of the FOIA in the United States are examined, especially the revision of the FOIA as the OPEN Government Act of 2007. The FOIA revision enhanced greatly the freedom of information in the U.S. including the establishment of an independent FOI ombudsman by the Congress. The paper also discusses the Presidential memoranda on the Open Government and the FOI by President Obama, the following directives, Presidential memorandum on government records management and the Government Records Management Directive. Major contents of the directives, plans, and achievement are summarized and analysed. Finally, this paper compares the government records management reforms under former President Roh Mu Hyun with the Obama's reform drive. The comparison found that major difference in the "top-down" government records reforms are the difference in democratic institutions such as weak congressional politics, strong bureaucratic obstacles, and relatively weak social and professional supports for the reforms in Korea, while these reforms were similar in terms that they were driven by insightful political leaders. Independent FOI ombudsman and national records administration are necessary for such democratic reforms.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.22
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• pp.37-76
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• 2009

This paper aims-through comparative research on two organizations and use of political process theory-to analyze the historical development of, current issues related to and the characteristics of the new transformation of the Freedom of Information Movements (FOIMs) in South Korea. In the ten years since the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) took effect in 1998, Korean FOIMs have developed along the following course: 'emergence' (1998), 'expansion and extension' (1999-2004), 'institutionalization and retro-institutionalization-' (2005-2008). Specifically, in the early stage of FOIMs, the Freedom of Information (FOI) department of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, established in 1998, had led the FOI movement by initiating reform of the FOI institution and advocating an end to old practices. Paradoxically, however, following the institutional progress of FOI under the Roh Moo Hyun government, the vitality of FOIMs seemed to be weakening. And under the Lee Myung Bak government, which is showing regression in both the FOI institution and practices, the 'dual transformation' of the FOIMs is being led not by old groups but by new ones. The Center for Freedom of Information and Transparent Society(CFOI), which was founded in 2008, has journalists, researchers of archival studies, citizens, lawyers and nongovernmental activists as members. Through its blog style Homepage, countless reports are becoming "open to the public" and "share with the public." And its various civic education programs are interactive bridges which enable mutual communication between the Center and citizens. CFOI is expanding the FOI movement in different ways than the traditional activists such as the FOI department of the PSPD department, which worked through methods such as policy proposals, disclosing information litigation, comments and public statements, and hosting forums. CFOI is leading the 'dual process of transformation' of FOIMs, namely the transformation from an 'advocacy' movement to an 'empowerment' movement and transformation of the FOI movement's framework from "open to the public" to "share with the public."