Copyright 2005 The Lexington Herald Leader 
All Rights Reserved  
Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky)
August 3, 2005 Wednesday
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. a10

LENGTH: 437 words

HEADLINE: Curtain of secrecy;
Mine safety info kept from press, public

BODY:
Elaine Chao's Labor Department has gone to ridiculous lengths to lock up public information about mine safety enforcement.

Now the attempt to control the news has become downright vindictive.

Phony reporter and paid escort Jeff Gannon was welcome at White House press briefings, where he lobbed softball questions. But an award-winning journalist who oversees a mining-industry newsletter is being excluded from briefings on such things as new diesel regulations in mines and a "Do the Right Thing'' workplace safety campaign.

Ellen Smith, owner and managing editor of the Mine Safety and Health News, has yet to receive an explanation for why she has been blackballed from press conferences and denied access to government officials.

But it's pretty obvious. Smith's reporting has occasionally embarrassed the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and its leaders during this and previous administrations.

She has a wide readership within management and labor. And she is highly knowledgeable, which enables her to ask tough questions, the kind some officials don't like.

So she's being punished.

Smith will be on solid legal ground if she challenges this abuse of power. But that's beside the point.

No citizen -- journalist or not -- should have to expend legal fees, time and energy fighting to make the government do what the law requires of it. And it shouldn't be just people who can afford lawyers who have access to government information.

The Freedom of Information Act is for everyone; at least, it's supposed to be. Senators and interest groups, representing views across the political spectrum, are objecting to the Bush administration's secrecy about even routine public records.

Under Chao, the Labor Department has refused to release coal mine inspection reports that had previously been routinely available to mine operators; blocked out long sections of an inspector general's report on the Martin County coal-waste spill; and even refused to divulge basic biographical information about officials who had been appointed to high positions in MSHA.

Smith's publication recently documented that MSHA denials of requests under the Freedom of Information Act have increased over recent years.

Not surprisingly, the number of requests has declined as people seeking information became discouraged.

This may seem like a trivial dispute involving an esoteric subject. But everyone should be outraged when a government agency punishes a reporter by making it impossible for her to do her job and inform people of government actions that directly affect their livelihoods and safety.