Each year as Sunshine Week comes around, I am reminded how few citizens realize the importance of government operating in an open, transparent fashion at all levels.
It isn’t just about protecting a newspaper’s access to meetings, government information and documents — though that is certainly part of it.
It is about the people knowing what issues their leaders are discussing and acting on — and having an opportunity to weigh in on them before decisions are made.
It is also about citizens being able to hold our leaders accountable for their actions — or inactions.
It should matter to every citizen if a governmental agency or official is trying to hide information from the citizens being served
In 30+ years of working for newspapers, I’ve heard plenty of “reasons” for withholding information and documents from the newspaper and/or interested citizens.
— Some issues are too complicated for regular citizens to understand;
— Sharing information hurts government ability to position itself;
— Having to educate citizens on the complexities of issues slows government ability to get things done;
— It takes too much time and effort to collect, reproduce and share documents.
Government employees and agencies work FOR THE PEOPLE. And the people need access to information in order to evaluate issues (and their elected officials) and to determine the direction they want their government to take.
I see it as The Star-Herald’s responsibility to gain access to and publish pertinent information on issues facing our city and county on behalf of our readers.
Most of the time, that means attending meetings and conducting interviews, but we will fight for our readers’ rights to know if we ever need to.
