More 'sunshine' to come
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The News-Item in the past three or four months has filed several Right to Know requests with local governmental bodies. It's a fairly common practice for newspapers and other media - but also for individuals.
Pennsylvania's new Right to Know Law took effect Jan. 1, 2009. The key distinction from the previous version is that the burden of proof has been flipped from being on challengers to prove a record should be open to government agencies proving it shouldn't be.
Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition (FOIC), tells us in advance of next week's national Sunshine Week there is no way to track how many requests for records have been submitted under the new law, or how many of those requests have been granted or denied. But what they can measure is the number of appeals that have been made under the new law to the state Office of Open Records in its first year: 1,159. The vast majority have come from citizens trying to get information from their town or county government or school district.
De Bourbon and Susan Schwartz, a reporter at The Press-Enterprise who is the Pennsylvania Project Sunshine chairwoman with the Society of Professional Journalists, will lead a public forum to discuss the new law at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Danville Borough Hall, 239 Mill St. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Montour County, the forum, entitled "The Government's Business is the People's Business," will include an overview of the law and how to use it, as well as an open discussion about what the law means to citizens and public officials.
Sunshine Week is an annual national effort to focus attention on the importance of open government and freedom of information issues.
De Bourbon said the new law is "pretty good," but "having a good law and having a universally good 'open government' attitude across the state are two different things."
She adds: "The new Right to Know Law gives citizens a lot more access to state and local government records, but the law is just a year old, and many of its provisions are still being worked out in the courts. There is a lot to talk about, and people are welcome to come and ask questions or present their concerns."
Like the Right to Know law, the FOIC provides a valuable resource to the journalists and citizens of Pennsylvania. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to maintaining open government and helping citizens understand and use the state's open records and open meetings laws. Visit www.pafoic.org for more information.
This is a rare local chance for a knowledgeable discussion on open records. It's a law that is equally important to journalists and citizens.
(Heintzelman, editor of The News-Item, writes "The Week In News" for each Saturday edition.)
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