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Through sometimes subtle and sometimes sweeping assaults, government officials have been closing their windows to public scrutiny. It is a troubling and ironic trend, considering the president speaks eloquently of developing democratic institutions around the world. Americans – including students – cannot be complacent about our own.
It is time to seek more openness from federal, state and local officials. The same goes for university administrators. That’s the faith and philosophy embodied in national Sunshine Week, which was recognized last week while U of L students enjoyed, well, fun and sun on spring break.
Sunshine Week is a project of newspapers, magazines and broadcasters concerned about the growth of government secrecy and the abuse of laws involving open government and freedom of information.
This is a week to embrace the benefits of openness in the public square, not only as a fundamental value of our society, but also as a tool of civic commerce. This is a week to urge an end to furtive secrecy that diminishes the public’s ability to weigh government policy and performance, whether on matters of war and peace, or potholes and salaries.
The cause of open government was pressed from the founding by Thomas Jefferson, third president and author of the Declaration of Independence. “The basis of our government being the opinion of the people,” he said, “the very first object should be to keep that right.”
Jefferson believed that access to public matters didn’t rest on the wisdom or fairness of politicians or the press. Only in a “marketplace of ideas,” could free and competing voices ultimately arm “the opinion of the people” with wisdom and common sense.
It must be stressed that the public’s right to know has always been vested with the people, not the news media. Never more so than in this age of electronic databases and instant communication.
It’s often an alert citizen or whistleblower who spotlights a tale of official abuse or indifference. Open meetings provide a remarkable instrument for officials to touch the right bases and implement a fair judgment.
Americans get their information on government from an incredible variety of sources. Everyone from bloggers to the mainstream media to interest groups have an online outlet.
Ultimately, however, it doesn’t matter how many thousand outlets vie for public attention if they are all force-fed the same government-issue spin and pabulum, along with being forbidden or obstructed from digging behind the scenes.
Today’s government officials are far from the first to restrict access to public information. The world may little note nor long remember that Abraham Lincoln shut down 300 opposition newspapers during the Civil War.
It was a time of peril, and we are in times of peril today. Still, in ways that have nothing to do with national security, the Bush administration has reversed a movement to more open government that began after the Watergate scandal of the ’70s.
In October, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a directive on Freedom of Information requests essentially requiring citizens to prove why they should be entitled to information kept by their government-instead of requiring the government to show why such information should be kept secret.
The administration also removed more than 6,000 documents from government Web sites.
The executive branch is hardly the only threat to the free flow of information. A prosecutor investigating the leak of the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame has brought the force of law against-no, not against the leaker-but against two reporters who won’t break their bond and divulge the name of a confidential source. We do not believe journalists should be above the law, but forcing them to do the bidding of government prosecutors is a sure way of drying up government coverage. Many states have shield laws protecting journalists in such cases, but the federal government does not. It can be hoped that this case will spur Congress to act.
There are glimmers of progress, too. Missouri implemented a Sunshine Law last summer that improves public access to official records and meetings. The state filed suit against one town where officials set an administrator’s salary in a private phone call.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini once said, “Give me the right to nominate and you can vote for whomever you please.” By that token, where government controls the information upon which we base our opinion and our vote, it undermines the democracy. Sunshine Week is an opportunity to discuss the values and benefits of open government, and the threats to that cherished ideal.
