Earlier this month, in celebration of Sunshine Week, we turned our attention to highlighting the value of transparency and public information to our communities, both large and small. However, year-round we must continue to remember the importance of advocating for transparency and work to protect the rights of journalists who are shining a light into […]
New York’s highest court ruled Thursday that the New York Police Department can decline to acknowledge whether it has records of investigating two Muslim men in response to the individuals’ public-records request. The ruling gives the NYPD a Cold War-era tool to shield information from the public determined to be sensitive, disappointing some lawyers and […]
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The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that government officials cannot subvert the state’s public records law, by conducting official business on private devices or through personal email accounts. The Nevada Policy Research Institute applauds the Court’s decision, they say is essential to ensuring Nevadans receive the kind of transparent and open government promised to them under […]
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HELENA — Montana’s government bodies and agencies must give some details about whose privacy rights they are protecting when justifying closing a meeting that would otherwise be open to the public, the state Supreme Court ruled. Justices in a 5-0 decision Tuesday said that the Wolf Point School District Board of Trustees’ explanation for closing […]
A local advocacy group is calling on the city to improve transparency in the police department following the publication of body camera footage in February that shows a white former Asheville police officer beating a black city resident. “For our city to move forward from this tragic incident, we need to talk about solutions,” Patrick Conant, a […]
Here’s one of those truths that ought to be self-evident: In this democracy, governments — federal, state, and local — are our governments. They belong to “We the people,” after all. We elect those who run them, and fund their salaries and everything they do. That means, or should mean, that we have a right to see […]
I wrote recently about how some governments in Pennsylvania still are thumbing their noses at the public when it comes to providing access to government records. One example occurring not far from the Lehigh Valley shows how the Right-to-Know Law isn’t tough enough to punish violators. Reading was chastised last week by the state Office […]
Groups and media organizations across the political spectrum were alarmed when, as the Bluegrass Institute Center for Open Government reported, House Bill 302 was changed to reclassify government business done on private devices and accounts as outside the reach of the open records law. As a result, the independent nonpartisan Bluegrass Institute has joined with Forward […]
Fort Bend County commissioners have joined a list of local officials asking Texas to suspend its Open Meetings Act during times of crisis after they say it caused issues in communication during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey last year. The Open Meetings Act requires public notice before a meeting of three or more elected officials. […]
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JEFFERSON CITY— The Sunshine Law, Missouri’s open records law, could be getting a big boost through legislation discussed Monday in a state House hearing. Missouri would join at least 15 other states in creating an official division that would not only enforce open records laws more strongly, but also provide guidance to the public and […]
Read More… from Missouri Sunshine Law would get stronger enforcement under new bill
