Open meetings/open records
Access is key for
an informed electorate
Free societies depend upon an informed electorate, but citizens can’t be informed unless they know what their government is doing. Open meetings and open records laws are intended to preserve citizen access to government.
Open meetings laws force those we elect to transact government business in the open. The public and the press can attend those meetings and listen to the discussion that happens before votes are taken. By requiring that this action be taken in the open, we better understand the thinking that goes into our laws. It also prevents public officials from planning their actions in secret so that the public vote comes an inconvenient formality.
Open records laws allow us to look into government activities. Open records laws allow us to know when developers wants to build projects in our communities and to know the details involved. We can look at correspondence between drug companies and regulators on the use and approval of new drugs. Public records allow us to see how the government is spending our money and complain when we think it’s being wasted.
The problem is that the people we want to watch are the ones that pass the laws and they often write the rules in ways that help them hide their activities. Journalists try to work around such roadblocks, but they need our help to do their most effective work.
As news consumers we need to support open meetings and open records laws that create as much access to government activities as possible. The more open the government, the better chance we have of knowing what’s going on so we can express our opinions to those whom we elect to represent us.
Below is a link to a web site operated by the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press. It allows you to review the open meetings and open records laws for your state and to compare those laws with other states.
News Consumer encourages you to watch for news concerning efforts to change open meetings and open records laws and to contact your legislators if you believe those changes are not in the public’s interest.
See also:
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Open Government Guide
Watchdog sues for access to government emails -- and why
New York family courts closed to public, despite order that they be open