Guest Column: Informed citizenry...

By Pam Lowe

In this day and age when the truth is often wafer thin and issues that should be transparent are opaque, it’s imperative to let the sunshine in and to ensure that vital information is available to the public. A community’s newspaper is a vehicle through which residents become informed citizens to learn about how their local, state and federal government is operating. Citizens armed with pertinent information are often engaged in their government and become a more knowledgeable voting public.

March 13-19 is Sunshine Week when the news industry comes together to celebrate the importance of access to public information and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FOIA was established in 1967 and for 56 years it has shone a light on information intended to be available to the public. Sunshine Week has been observed annually since 2005 to correspond with March 16, the birthday of James Madison, major contributor to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and a stalwart advocate for the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment.

In 2023, it has never been more important to protect transparency. In nearly every legislative session, there is some attack to gut the FOIA. In fact, the public’s tax dollars are often used by officials to pay private entities or lobbyists to advocate against transparency rights to benefit bureaucrats and keep citizens in the dark.

Citizens are entitled to know what their government is doing that affects them, to see the records that reflect that and the data and documents produced.

Newspaper articles about city council meetings and legislator business, happenings in the city, law enforcement reports and court records all fall into the realm of the public’s right to know. Law enforcement, the mayor, city council members and state legislators all work for us; John Q. Public. Newspapers and news outlets safeguard that they aren’t looking after their own best interests. The Freedom of Information laws help make that possible. The Freedom of Information Act is a people’s act. It is for transparency within government, because it is the citizens of the community that support the public institutions. It is their taxes that pay for the police departments, their taxes that pay the mayor and quorum court members. And they are all entitled to know how their dollars are being spent and the various issues.

John Tull, Arkansas Press Association attorney, founding member of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC in Little Rock, and member of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Task Force, is a staunch defender of FOIA. In a conversation with him a couple months ago regarding FOIA issues he said, “Everyone dealing with Freedom of Information recognizes the need for transparency when you need to be transparent with your constituents. And there too often is the knee jerk reaction trying to prevent being questioned about something or trying to prevent stirring up people, but people have a right to know. And if it is a document that is covered out of the Freedom Information, you’re entitled to see it, unless there is a specific exemption that prevents the disclosure of that document.” For instance, concerning law enforcement and FOIA laws he said that the citizens of a community are entitled to know, one, what the police are doing, and they’re entitled to know what crime is being committed and where it is happening. “Citizens have a right to their own safety,” said Tull. “They have a right to know if there’s a perpetrator in the neighborhood. If there’s a rash of burglaries, if there are drugs, transactions being taken, I mean, citizens have a right to know and citizens have a right to file Freedom of Information Act for the very same thing.” Federal Freedom of Information laws are available to everyone. The news industry uses them regularly, but as citizens of the state of Arkansas, the public can request pursuant through the FOIA or Freedom of Information Act too. The Supreme Court has determined that when documents are within FOIA’s disclosure provisions, citizens should not be required to explain why they seek the information. The information belongs to citizens to do with as they choose.

It is important for people to realize that communities that suffer the loss of their newspaper no longer have local coverage of the issues that affect them. That deficit of local reporting has an impact on the budgets of cities and towns as there is no one there to report waste or fraud if it occurs. A newspaper helps a city or town to be accessible to its residents. Along with reporting the news and events, the newspaper is the community’s watchdog. The last few years have been tough on the newspaper industry. The economics of the newspaper business has caused numerous papers to decrease their home delivery, and some have reduced their frequency of publication in an effort to preserve their community’s ombudsman. Despite these efforts to save them, many citizens across the country have mourned the loss of their local newspapers and their access to local news and the elimination of a transparency safeguard.

Many citizens do not realize that the newspaper is a local business too. This may not be important to those who mistakenly believe that social media outlets are trusted news sources, but the loss of a newspaper would be detrimental to its community for a variety of important reasons, but particularly where FOIA and clear, open information is concerned.

Newspapers are advocates for the residents of their communities; for those that need a voice, and information, but just as they support their communities; newspapers need their communities to support them.

The currency of trust is transparency. It is needed to maintain faith, confidence and to enable an open dialogue between citizens and their government. Newspapers are vital to garnering that transparency. To celebrate Sunshine Week, support your community newspaper by purchasing subscriptions or advertisements and bask in the knowledge that you participated in the advancement of liberty and informed citizenry.

To learn more about FOIA in Arkansas, download the Arkansas Freedom of Information Handbook on the Arkansas Press Association’s website: https://arkansaspress. org/freedom-of-information-handbook/ or drop by the Clay County Courier office to receive a handbook.

Pam Lowe is managing editor at the Clay County Courier in Corning. She can be reached at plowe@cherryroad.com.