OPEN Government Act of 2007: updates FOIA to benefit bloggers

Good news, bloggers: your legal status as a legitimate member of the news media is one step closer to becoming reality. On December 31, President Bush capped off 2007 by signing into law the OPEN Government Act of 2007, updating the Freedom of Information Act to – among other things – open more doors for reporters in a broad range of mediums.

The new bill includes language broadening the definition of a reporter. David Ardia at Media Shift’s IdeaLab Blog notes:

[T]he legislation substantially reforms the Freedom of Information Act and expands the definition of who is a “representative of the news media” under FOIA. This change would significantly benefit bloggers and non-traditional journalists by making them eligible for reduced processing and duplication fees that are available to “representatives of the news media.”

By expanding the definition of what defines “a representative of the news media,” the OPEN Government Act seems to be bending to the pressure of new media, using language that aptly describes blogs without mentioning them by name. From the bill:

[T]he term ‘a representative of the news media’ means any person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience. In this clause, the term ‘news’ means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Examples of news-media entities are television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large and publishers of periodicals (but only if such entities qualify as disseminators of ‘news’) who make their products available for purchase by or subscription by or free distribution to the general public. These examples are not all-inclusive. Moreover, as methods of news delivery evolve (for example, the adoption of the electronic dissemination of newspapers through telecommunications services), such alternative media shall be considered to be news-media entities.

The blogosphere is already alive with excited discussion over the potential outcomes of this new law. But bloggers and reporters will have to wait almost a year to take advantage of it: the FOIA reforms don’t come into effect until January 1, 2009.