(a) Records responsive to a request shall be furnished without charge or at a reduced rate below that established under Sec. 706.22, where OPIC determines, based on all available information, that the requester has demonstrated that:
(1) Disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government, and
(2) Disclosure of the information is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
(b) In deciding whether disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of operations or activities of the government, OPIC will consider the following factors:
(1) The subject of the request must concern identifiable operations or activities of the Federal government, with a connection that is direct and clear, not remote or attenuated.
(2) The disclosable portions of the requested records must be meaningfully informative about government operations or activities in order to be ``likely to contribute'' to an increased public understanding of those operations or activities. The disclosure of information that already is in the public domain, in either the same or a substantially identical form, would not contribute to such understanding where nothing new would be added to the public's understanding.
(3) The disclosure must contribute to the understanding of a reasonably broad audience of persons interested in the subject, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requester. A requester's expertise in the subject area as well as his or her ability and intention to effectively convey information to the public shall be considered. It shall ordinarily be presumed that a representative of the news media satisfies this consideration.
(4) The public's understanding of the subject in question must be enhanced by the disclosure to a significant extent. However, OPIC shall not make value judgments about whether the information at issue is ``important'' enough to be made public.
(c) To determine whether disclosure of the requested information is primarily in the commercial interest of the requester, OPIC will consider the following factors:
(1) OPIC shall identify any commercial interest of the requester, as defined in paragraph (b)(1) of this section, that would be furthered by the requested disclosure. Requesters shall be given an opportunity to provide explanatory information regarding this consideration.
(2) A waiver or reduction of fees is justified where the public interest is greater than any identified commercial interest in disclosure.
(d) Where only some of the records to be released satisfy the requirements for a waiver of fees, a waiver shall be granted for those records.
(e) Requests for a waiver or reduction of fees should be made when the request is first submitted to OPIC and should address the criteria referenced above. A requester may submit a fee waiver request at a later time so long as the underlying record request is pending or on administrative appeal. When a requester who has committed to pay fees subsequently asks for a waiver of those fees and that waiver is denied, the requester will be required to pay any costs incurred up to the date the fee waiver request was received.
(f) The burden of presenting sufficient evidence or information to justify the requested fee waiver or reduction falls on the requester.