Protecting your right to know
Reprinted with Press-Republican permission. Appeared in the March 13, 2024 edition.
VIEWPOINT
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest editorial by Jim Zachary. Zachary is CNHI Director of Newsroom Standards & Practices can be reached at jzachary@cnhi.com.
All government business is your business.
Government can only be of, by and for the people when it is out in front of the people.
State Sunshine Laws should not only codify the public’s right to know but should facilitate access to both records and meetings while providing real penalties when elected and appointed officials block or stall access.
Unfortunately, as a combined CNHI and Associated Press nationwide report published this week shows, in the vast majority of states public access laws have little to no teeth, and in the states that do have stiff penalties for violations, enforcement is sparse at best.
That needs to change. Every last penny government spends is your money.
It is your right to know every transaction, every decision, every expenditure and every deliberation of your government.
Whether at the White House, the statehouse or the county courthouse, all the documents held in government halls belong to the people, and all the business conducted by our governors is public business.
The understanding that we are the government and the government is us is primary to our Republic.
The only powers held by federal, state or local government are the powers we give.
So, whether it is Congress, the state’s General Assembly, county commission, city council or the board of education, it is your right to know all the people’s business.
When you attend local city, county or schoolboard meetings, and ask questions and hold elected representatives accountable, you are not minding their business, you are minding your own business.
When you make a public records request, you are not asking local records custodians to give you something that just belongs to them or the office where they work. You are simply asking for your own documents. Those custodians need to understand that.
The Bill of Rights guarantees the freedom of the press for very important reasons. The founders built a hedge of protection around the media because the press, as the Fourth Estate, guards and fights for the public’s right to know, holding government accountable.
Journalists help keep an eye on government, shine the light on its actions, fight the good fight for access to documents and meetings, champion transparency and defend the First Amendment because of a core belief in your basic, fundamental rights — principally, your right to know.
Access to public information, though, is not just for the press. It is for each and every one of you too.
Posted: March 14th, 2024 under Education News, General News, Opinion.