The Department of Interior has issued new rules intended to clarify employee restrictions for communicating with the news media and the public in general, stemming from an Obama administration scientific integrity policy first announced in 2009, an advocacy group has said.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says that the new rules are intended to foster a culture of openness with the news media and allow specialists to freely and openly discuss scientific, scholarly, technical, and management approaches, findings, and conclusions based on their official work.
According to PEER the rules encourage employees to publish their work, and also forbid public affairs staff from altering "the substance of scientific, scholarly and technical information." Scientists, scholars, engineers and other subject matter experts will further be given an opportunity to review news releases concerning their work prior to publication.
PEER executive director Jeff Ruch praised the department for "raising the bar for official candor" but noted the absence of an official definition of what scientists can and can not disclose, and also the lack of an enforcement mechanism against reprisal.
