4 8
2021 Sunshine Week observed March 14-20 APA Legislative Report
Arkansas Press Association
Publisher Weekly Vol. 16 | No. 10 | Thursday, March 11, 2021 | Serving Press and State Since 1873
Rob Moritz sees Task Force role as FOIA ‘protector’ For Rob Moritz to fully appreciate transparency laws in Arkansas, it took taking a job in Tennessee. Now a passionate advocate for the state’s Freedom of Information Act, Moritz said his stint as a reporter at newspapers in Nashville helped him realize the value of Arkansas’s 54-year-old open records and open meetings law. As the annual observance of Sunshine Week nears, Moritz emphasized the importance of Arkansas’s FOIA to the newspaper industry and the public. “Everyone had said Arkansas’s FOIA offered the most transparency in the country, and when I went to Tennessee, I realized that,” Moritz said. Though the Tennessee and Arkansas freedom-of-information laws were enacted the same year, Moritz described the neighboring state’s act – and its 300plus exemptions – as “watered down.” Continued on Page 2
Rob Moritz, chairman of the Arkansas FOIA Task Force
FOIA bills aplenty during legislative session As they have in recent legislative sessions, members of the Arkansas General Assembly have filed a significant number of bills that would change the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The Arkansas Press Association is part of a broad coalition working to oppose any legislation that would weaken the state’s open records and open meetings law. That group includes the Arkansas
Broadcasters Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Arkansas FOIA Coalition and dozens of other open-government advocates. “It seems with every General Assembly, there are an increasing number of attacks on the public’s right to know,” said Ashley Wimberley, APA executive director. “This year, as we go into the annual observance of Continued on Page 3