Shedding some sunshine on open government

It is no coincidence that Sunshine Week, an annual observance that emphasizes the importance of open government, is held during the week of Madison’s birthday, which is March 16.

Madison and Thomas Jefferson, two of the seven Founding Fathers of our country, were staunch defenders of newspapers as a key element in the public’s right to know.

Jefferson said this about the press:

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Both men understood that a nation without an informed citizenry was doomed to failure.

That’s why the TimesDaily makes it a point to consistently remind government officials that they are answerable for their actions. We encourage government leaders to always conduct their business in open meetings so that citizens and news organizations can see and hear what is happening.

But not all public figures are believers in transparency. What’s legally considered public information is often treated otherwise by government leaders who try to maneuver around the public’s right to know.

Governments get around transparency through such actions as charging fees for information to which people are legally entitled, or by creating exemptions from Freedom of Information acts. Most often, governments simply — and conveniently — neglect to tell us what they are doing.

That’s why you must always remember that you have a right to know what’s going on in government. Governments do not own public records, they are merely the custodians of those records. Those records belong to the public, and the people have the right to see and access them.

Sunshine Week is a good time to reflect on our need to keep the actions of all our government agencies as transparent as possible. We will continue to do our best to keep you posted on how well those rights are being respected, and to point out instances we find where those rights are neglected, ignored or violated.