No one who's paid any attention should be surprised that Oklahoma fared poorly in a nationwide study of government transparency. The fight for more openness throughout government has been ongoing for years.
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Read More… from Editorial: Making Oklahoma state government more transparent is an ongoing struggle
FOI Oklahoma is accepting nominations for its eighth-annual awards ceremony that recognizes organizations and individuals who promoted the First Amendment and freedom of information in 2014.
The ceremony will be March 14 at the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, 300 Park Ave. Sunshine Week activities begin the following day.
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Read More… from FOI Oklahoma accepting nominations for annual First Amendment awards ceremony
At first glance, it was just like many other emails sent by area residents. The writer, a constituent of South Logan County, expressed his frustration with the regulatory actions of a large state agency. While I understood the writer's frustration and his valid description of a legitimate abuse, I was excited to realize that his email contained a validation of one of the most important transparency tools, a tool that allowed this South Logan County resident to demonstrate an error by a large state agency.
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Read More… from Online videos help hold OK state government accountable
Our View: Public officials need to respect the freedom of access granted by the Oklahoma Open Records Act and honor their duty to fulfill such requests.
Freedom of Information laws are intended to allow the public access to records they have rights to review and posses. Additionally, the laws encourage bureaucratic transparency and accountability. These laws exist to ensure freedom of access to records and meetings that are public information. Naturally, we become suspicious when public officials try to skirt Freedom of Information laws and obscure requests.
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Read More… from Freedom of Information laws a public atrocity
Last month I received some great news. A report titled ìState Open Data Policies and Portalsî was released by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Data Innovation and ranked Oklahoma as one of the top six top-scoring states for its open data policies.
This is just the latest in a series of national recognitions of the transparency advancement for which we have spent years working toward.
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Read More… from Oklahoma transparency laws drawing national attention
Taxpayers fund the operations of private prisons in Oklahoma, just as they do state and federal ones — but they largely don’t have access to the same information and records about those private facilities.
A new report argues that private prison operators should be subject to the same level of scrutiny and transparency as state- and federal-run prisons.
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From NewsOK.com:
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin released more than 51,000 pages of documents Friday to meet public records requests for information about how her office made health care decisions, but advocates of the state’s open record laws are concerned about what was not released.
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Read More… from Oklahoma governor’s office releases thousands of records, but withholds some
State Attorney General Scott Pruitt has written a letter to the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police about complaints that police departments are violating the Open Records Act by withholding public information from initial incident reports.
“The state Legislature has made it clear in this regard that a police department's initial offense report or cover sheet should be open for public inspection, regardless of its inclusion in an investigation file,” Pruitt wrote in his Jan. 4 letter.
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Read More… from Attorney general tells Oklahoma chiefs of police that information is public
From Tulsa World:
Tulsa County Court Clerk Sally Howe Smith has begun posting civil pleadings, criminals charges and other court documents on the Internet, she said. However, trial transcripts will not be placed online, Smith said.
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Read More… from Tulsa County begins posting court documents online
From The Republic:
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Supreme Court scrapped a plan Monday that would have allowed birth dates and home addresses to be excluded from public court documents.
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