In a letter to President Obama, ONA and nearly three dozen other news media organizations urged the administration to be more transparent in how it deals with journalists. Specifically, the letter expressed frustration that “public agencies have increasingly prohibited staff from communicating with journalists unless they go through public affairs offices or through political appointees.”
The letter calls on the administration to reverse these policies and that the president “issue a clear directive telling federal employees they’re not only free to answer questions from reporters and the public, but actually encouraged to do so.”