A journalist is suing the Department of Defense, alleging that it broke the law in repeatedly denying his requests for public information based on his employment at a military publication.
Stars and Stripes reporter Chad Garland filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It contends that DOD, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps and U.S. Central Command committed numerous violations of the Freedom of Information Act from August 2020 through August 2021.
Stars and Stripes is not one of the parties involved in the lawsuit.
“This is a fight for my personal First Amendment and FOIA rights,” Garland said.
During the period covered by the suit, Garland made 15 requests as a private individual under FOIA, a federal law that allows people to obtain public records.
The agencies denied all of those requests as well as his subsequent appeals because he is a federal employee.
At issue is a DOD policy barring Stars and Stripes and its reporters from requesting public records through FOIA because the newspaper is administered under the department’s Defense Media Activity.
That makes it a federal agency, meaning neither Stars and Stripes nor its reporters can use FOIA, Defense Department policy states.
“Without the right of knowing what the government is doing, you can’t really talk about it or publish anything about it,” Garland said. “And that has real importance nowadays, with so much misinformation and disinformation. It is the...
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