"Sunshine Week" is March 11-17 and during it journalists nationwide examine the state of our ability to access open records and celebrate the freedom we have due to this access.
In Wisconsin, the laws which are most important to the "people's right to know" include the Wisconsin Open Records Law and the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law. These two laws, and court cases about them, help determine what records government must make available to citizens and what portions of public meetings must be open to citizens.
Journalists in all media work to support open records and open meetings by often doing small things people don't consider important. The presence of reporters at municipal meetings helps keep public officials on topic. Journalists report the news, however large or small it may seem. Journalists can ask how long a municipal body will go into closed session and if members plan to take action after they return. They can ask for explanations if a body is going into closed session but doesn't give a reason.
Testing "sunshine" is important. Any citizen can walk into a jail and request a roster of the inmates being held. You don't have to give your name. The jail is required to provide this roster as a way to ensure people are being held for valid legal reasons. The emails of public officials are public records. A public person, such as a mayor, school district administrator or department commissioner, may be asked to provide emails from their office over a period of time. Obtaining these records may cost a reasonable fee, but public officials are required by law to provide records upon request. Who generally ensures the public has the ability to make these requests and get results? Journalists.
Among the last bastion of gatekeepers interested in open records and open meetings are the journalists who cover small communities. These "community journalists" may work in a large city providing news to those who live in the same building, or they work at a newspaper in a village that provides news on hundreds of residents. These journalists aren't fanning the flames of international intrigue, they are covering births, deaths, marriages, divorces, real estate sales, civic clubs, schools and local government. Community journalists don't live for conflict, they'd rather write a feature story on the local Lions Club. These community journalists, which number far more than the journalists in major markets, make sure the city council has a quorum. When the school board gets a packet of information at a meeting, every piece of information in that packet should be made available to a working journalist at the meeting. Journalists work hard to provide you with news, weather, features - and to make sure each individual citizen has access to the same information under the law.
The mere presence of a properly-trained journalist is the difference between knowing if government is operating properly or it isn't. People who serve the public aren't itching to break laws. Most public servants toil long hours for little money and do more public good than anyone imagines. However, sometimes a conversation on a topic listed on an agenda switches. The body gathered veers off in another direction. It's at that time when a journalist raises both an eyebrow and a hand and simply asks, "Excuse me, but this isn't on the agenda, should you be talking about this?"
Nobody wins a Pulitzer Prize for raising that hand or is considered as government's watchdog of the year. It's just a journalist doing their job. A job supported by the people of a community through their subscriptions and audience. A job supported by businesses of a community who see the value in both advertising and news in a community. A job that was held by several of our founding fathers and has been supported by the citizenry of our nation since its inception.
Sunshine Week is important to celebrate because openness and freedom still exits as intended. Open records and meetings protect people. The role of the traditional journalist is changing. Americans need to decide if they support real journalism, or if they want to see what crops up when journalism no longer exists. Places in the world where there is no journalism - many exist - are horrifying examples of oppression and the worst acts of humankind.
Here, journalists are a key reason why light still shines despite many forces trying to pull down the shade.
In Wisconsin, the laws which are most important to the "people's right to know" include the Wisconsin Open Records Law and the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law. These two laws, and court cases about them, help determine what records government must make available to citizens and what portions of public meetings must be open to citizens.
Journalists in all media work to support open records and open meetings by often doing small things people don't consider important. The presence of reporters at municipal meetings helps keep public officials on topic. Journalists report the news, however large or small it may seem. Journalists can ask how long a municipal body will go into closed session and if members plan to take action after they return. They can ask for explanations if a body is going into closed session but doesn't give a reason.
Testing "sunshine" is important. Any citizen can walk into a jail and request a roster of the inmates being held. You don't have to give your name. The jail is required to provide this roster as a way to ensure people are being held for valid legal reasons. The emails of public officials are public records. A public person, such as a mayor, school district administrator or department commissioner, may be asked to provide emails from their office over a period of time. Obtaining these records may cost a reasonable fee, but public officials are required by law to provide records upon request. Who generally ensures the public has the ability to make these requests and get results? Journalists.
Among the last bastion of gatekeepers interested in open records and open meetings are the journalists who cover small communities. These "community journalists" may work in a large city providing news to those who live in the same building, or they work at a newspaper in a village that provides news on hundreds of residents. These journalists aren't fanning the flames of international intrigue, they are covering births, deaths, marriages, divorces, real estate sales, civic clubs, schools and local government. Community journalists don't live for conflict, they'd rather write a feature story on the local Lions Club. These community journalists, which number far more than the journalists in major markets, make sure the city council has a quorum. When the school board gets a packet of information at a meeting, every piece of information in that packet should be made available to a working journalist at the meeting. Journalists work hard to provide you with news, weather, features - and to make sure each individual citizen has access to the same information under the law.
The mere presence of a properly-trained journalist is the difference between knowing if government is operating properly or it isn't. People who serve the public aren't itching to break laws. Most public servants toil long hours for little money and do more public good than anyone imagines. However, sometimes a conversation on a topic listed on an agenda switches. The body gathered veers off in another direction. It's at that time when a journalist raises both an eyebrow and a hand and simply asks, "Excuse me, but this isn't on the agenda, should you be talking about this?"
Nobody wins a Pulitzer Prize for raising that hand or is considered as government's watchdog of the year. It's just a journalist doing their job. A job supported by the people of a community through their subscriptions and audience. A job supported by businesses of a community who see the value in both advertising and news in a community. A job that was held by several of our founding fathers and has been supported by the citizenry of our nation since its inception.
Sunshine Week is important to celebrate because openness and freedom still exits as intended. Open records and meetings protect people. The role of the traditional journalist is changing. Americans need to decide if they support real journalism, or if they want to see what crops up when journalism no longer exists. Places in the world where there is no journalism - many exist - are horrifying examples of oppression and the worst acts of humankind.
Here, journalists are a key reason why light still shines despite many forces trying to pull down the shade.
