What was billed as a celebratory kickoff sounded more like the somber briefing of an embattled and encircled force listing off perils of its situation. Such were the warnings given during the League of Women Voters and The News-Press Media Group’s Open Government and You public forum about the “erosion” of the public’s right to information.
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Read More… from Public’s right to know being eroded, experts warn
We Texans have a history of straight talk and openness, and our state’s public information laws reflect it. Shining light on our government allows democracy to flourish.
As we celebrate that light during national Sunshine Week from March 13-19, let’s be thankful that Texas laws value the public’s right to know through broad access to records and meetings. But we cannot grow complacent. We must fight to keep the laws strong.
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Read More… from Column: Open government is part of Texas’ history of straight talk
The New Jersey Foundation for Open Government (NJFOG) is hosting a free educational seminar during National Sunshine Week (March 13-19), when the dialogue will be all about open government and “your right to know.”
The seminar will be held on Tuesday, March 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Belleville High School.
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Read More… from Learn about open government, Sunshine laws at New Jersey seminar
The Ted Nugent Relief Act — a proposal to keep information on hunting and fishing licenses secret — is dead.
So is another bill that would have kept certain data about voters secret from the general public while still making it available to candidates, political parties and PACs.
And an attempt to undo access to public information in Florida as we know it was neutralized so that it gained the acceptance of the First Amendment Foundation.
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Read More… from Opinion: Florida lawmakers continue to chip away at open government
State and local governments affect citizens’ daily lives, but often small governments, media and the public don’t understand open meeting and open record laws.
Free sessions offered by a nonprofit Idaho coalition aim to change that, but you’ll have to wait until fall for the next round of offerings.
Betsy Russell, a Boise-based journalist for The Spokesman-Review, and Dean Miller, then-editor of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, in 2004 formed Idahoans for Openness in Government, a broad-based coalition.
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Read More… from Idaho coalition teaches about open government
Barbara Petersen has been fighting back efforts to make Florida’s government less transparent for more than 20 years. There haven’t been many battles more consequential than the one she’s waging right now.
Over the last few years, there have been reports about a handful of people or firms using the state’s strong public records law in gotcha-style stings, essentially to extract legal fees from unwitting violators. Predictably, that led to demands to change the law.
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Read More… from Meet the woman fighting behind the scenes to defend open government in Florida
California has long led the nation in protecting public access to public information, with one glaring exception that took hold in the late 1970s: Police records have become increasingly off limits. The dubious rationale for blocking disclosure is that it is a private matter — and none of the public's business — when a police officer fires a weapon, is found to have lied during an investigation or is disciplined for misconduct.
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Read More… from Editorial: It’s time to restore police transparency in California
Residents across Wisconsin are invited to free events exploring the importance of open records laws, and how to use them to obtain critical information about the actions of government.
The eight-city “Open Government Traveling Show” by open government advocates comes in the wake of unprecedented attacks on open records laws from state lawmakers and others.
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Anyone with doubts about the value of open government need only look to Summerville, South Carolina, for assurance.
Because Summerville police and municipal court officials refused to release public information, citizens were unaware that a man who had been charged with rape was on bail, walking freely among them for five days.
They didn’t even know to be cautious. Continue…
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Meeting the public’s demand for open government data presents opportunities for elected and appointed officials, as well as many challenges, including associated costs and privacy issues, a Rutgers report finds.
Forty representatives from academia, civic groups, media, municipal, county and state government and open government advocates participated in an Open Government Data Thought Forum to learn about issues related to making various data collected and held by government agencies available to the public in unrestricted, reusable and redistributable form.
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