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President Joe R. Biden asked to call on Congress to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act Guest Column: We’ve got some explaining to do By John Foust
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol.18 | No. 5 | Thursday, February 2, 2023 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Arkansas lawmakers floating legislation to overhaul state’s public notice requirements; APA is against By Wesley Brown
“This bill primarily targets with almost surgical precision the exact types of notices that should absolutely remain in newspapers and on newspaper websites — election notices and delinquent-tax notices,” said Karpel. “Election notices require as much transparency as possible because of all the doubt that has been cast on our elections by election deniers. And newspaper ads have historically done a great job in helping to collect overdue taxes; taking them out of newspapers and off their websites will mean local governments will collect less revenue.” “We don’t understand why someone would want to pass a law requiring all of these notices to be published on a government website, even though few people will see them there,” said Karpel. “Why one would want to eliminate them from newspapers and their websites — which many more people see than government websites — raises troubling questions.” Newspapers across the nation have traditionally been the first means to post public notices for specific operations of the government and certain business activities in civil legal proceedings. As such, APA is against the draft proposal. Continued on Page 2
of government transparency
FOIA
gs Meetin
three-legged stool
Notice
Richard Karpel, executive director of the Public Notice Resource Center, which partners with state press associations, said the draft proposal is problematic.
Along with open meeting and freedom of information laws, public notice is an essential element of the
Public
Under draft legislation circulating at the Arkansas State Capitol, lawmakers intend to eliminate a requirement that local governments publish public notices in newspapers and instead allow them to post the notices on their own websites. The 12-page draft also amends certain public notice requirements for elections, delinquent taxes and local municipalities without newspapers.
Why Public Notice Should Remain in Newspapers
Open
As lawmakers seek to change the state’s long-held law on how public notices are disseminated, experts are warning that such legislation will erode transparency and decimate Arkansas newspapers.
Newspapers
remain the primary vehicle for public notice in
all 50 states
Since the first U.S. Congress, public officials have understood that newspapers are the best medium to notify the public about official matters because they contain the
essential elements of public notice: Accessibility Independence
vs Verifiability This is not about “newspapers vs the internet”.
It’s newspapers and newspaper websites vs government websites and newspaper websites have a much larger audience. Moving notice from newspapers to government websites would
reduce the presence of public notices on the internet i PUBLIC NOTICE: AN AMERICAN TRADITION
Archivability
Publishing notices on the internet is neither cheap nor free