To those uninitiated in increasingly unpronounceable government acronyms, EFOIA is the "Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996." (The law says that’s the short title!) 

In everyday talk, EFOIA is the first amendment to the Freedom of Information Act (5 USC 552) in a decade, and was intended by its authors to extend to the modern age the idea that government information is public information.  The old Freedom of Information law, enacted in 1966, did not address a world where government data is increasingly being compiled and kept on computer disks instead of on paper.  Simply put, EFOIA puts the federal government on notice that its computer files – with some broad, sweeping exemptions – are your computer files.  

Broadcasters never seem to have been convinced of the value of FOIA.  Knowing how to write a FOIA, which is a very basic form letter, is a talent as rare in many broadcast newsrooms as medieval alchemy.

Over the years, I have unearthed a lot of good information with FOIA that went into powerful stories.  

I obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration audio tapes of air-to-ground and air-to-air communications in three near-midair collisions in 1980.  Playing those bone-chilling tapes on the air seemed to prompt the FAA to update the local radar system.

A FOIA I filed with the United States Department of Energy in the mid-80s brought forth a flood of documents about how the federal government had exposed as many as 750,000 Americans to one of the most potent toxins known to science, and had never bothered to inform most of them of the exposure.

Over the years, I have filed a number of larger and smaller requests filed with one federal agency or another forcing the government to cough up the goods – papers, reports, travel documents, photographs, and – in one of my prouder moments – desk-top calendars that showed that officials had indeed met secretly with local officials for the purpose of locking the media out of newsworthy incidents.

Now there's a whole new law (EFOIA), which extends the openness to a whole new range of records.  No one is exactly sure how it will work, or how effective it will be in remedying some of the frustrating problems with FOIA over its 30-year history.

Among the biggest problems – the lengthy delays government agencies have made a matter of course in filling requests.  Although FOIA set a 10-day time limit – which EFOIA extends in most cases to 20 days – government agencies routinely run backlogs of months, and often times years, in filling the most perfunctory requests.  

The delays were, without a doubt, the biggest impediment to use of FOIA in TV newsrooms.  No one bothered to learn how to file for information that wouldn't be provided until at least the next sweeps period, and perhaps many sweeps periods down the road.  In an industry where it's rare for top executives to remain longer than two years in one place, it's just not in the institutional culture to lay a paperwork foundation for a story that could well be a year in the making.

EFOIA seeks to remedy this problem with two different tracks for information requests.  Although these provisions of the law don't take effect until October of this year, those who can demonstrate "urgency to inform the public" – which seems at first blanch to mean anyone in the media – can request expedited handling of a request, and receive a response on whether it will be expedited within 10 days.  

On the other hand, under EFOIA an agency can announce to a requestor "unusual circumstances" – meaning that the request may take more research than the agency can conduct within the time limit – that would extend the deadlines for releasing information by an additional ten working days.  The requestor will have an opportunity to modify the request.  If the requestor refuses to make a modification in the information sought, the agency can declare "exceptional circumstances," which seems to mean that they'll get the request filled when they get around to it.

How will it work?  Nobody knows just yet.  It will be next year before federal agencies are required to report their FOIA and EFOIA records – how many requests were filled, how many were denied, and generally how long it took to make the determination – to the Attorney General, and April 1 before the Attorney General is required to notify Congress.

The good news?  That annual report must, by law, be posted electronically.

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There are a number of good online sources about the Freedom of Information Act and how to use it.  (At the moment, none of those sites seems to offer much guidance about EFOIA.)

The University of Missouri Freedom of Information Center has some worthwhile resources, including sample FOI letters.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press goes it one better, with an interactive FOI letter generator included on the site.  Also, RCFP's booklet "How to use the Federal FOI Act" (presently available only in paper form, and at a cost of $4.50) is extremely helpful.  It can be ordered through the Site.

Also, there's a whole section of the Society of Professional Journalists website devoted to FOI issues, including step-by-step instructions for filing as well as sample letters of request and appeal.

Professor Barbara Croll Fought at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University has posted an impressive list of FOI resources.

For a comprehensive roundup of federal as well as state laws guaranteeing access to public records, see the National Freedom of Information Coalition site and follow the flag to the resources you're looking for.

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PAUL SKOLNICK, managing editor of Thunder & Lightning News Service in Belleair Bluffs, FL, has filed hundreds of Freedom of Information Act and state and local government "open records" requests.