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Published Sunday, March 14, 2010 in Opinion

Sunshine Week: open government

Editorial

This is Sunshine Week (March 14-20) throughout Georgia and throughout our great nation.

What is Sunshine Week? It's a time when the media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofit organizations and others spotlight the importance of open government, open records and freedom of information.

The week may be spearheaded by journalists, but Sunshine Week is about the public's right to know what its government is doing and why. Open government, open records and freedom of information is not about journalists -- it is about every citizen. As journalists we have no right or no access to information that is not available to every citizen. It's the people's right to know -- not the journalists right to know.

Goals of Sunshine Week are to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels and to let people know they have access to information that can make their lives better and their communities stronger.

When our county commission, city councils, school board or other public agency hold a meeting, the public has a right to attend. By law, all of these meetings must be open to the public. The public's business must be done in public view. There are certain matters of business -- such as discussions of certain personnel matters, real estate transactions and potential litigation -- these bodies can discuss in closed session. However, no decisions on even these matters can be made without a vote being taken in a public meeting.

If any citizen wants a police report or any other public document, you are entitled to receive that document simply by asking the agency involved. Open records are not just open to journalists or government workers, they are open to the public.

Another goal of Sunshine Week is to make the public aware that, from time to time, there is legislation offered to try to stymie open government. In fact, Sunshine Week was first started in Florida in 2002 during a time when Florida lawmakers tried to create new exemptions to the state's public records laws. Because Sunshine Week raised the public's awareness about the lawmakers' intent, it is estimated 300 exemptions to Florida's strong Sunshine Law were defeated.

Georgia has a good Sunshine Law. It's not the best, but it is working. The Georgia Press Association and other groups are constantly monitoring any possible legislative attempt to weaken our state's open government laws. That's done not for the good of the press, but for the good of the people. It's all about the public's right to know.