Open records are vital to keeping government up front and honest

Never before has freedom of the press been as important as it is right now. For some reason, government on the state and federal level – and in some places on the local level – confuse the public’s right to know with the media’s right to know and get defensive.

Whether those misguided officials believe it or not, the media has been a watchdog for the American people since America became a country.

This week is Sunshine Week, a time for those of us in the media to remind you the public, as well as you the public officials, that what goes on in government meetings, as well as behind closed doors where decisions are made, are important things for all of us to know.

The Salem News has always taken public records and our right to know seriously. We have used the Missouri Sunshine Law on numerous occasions to obtain public information. On many of those occasions it has been a fight to do so, and each and every time we have prevailed. We did not prevail because we are cagier than public officials who wanted to wheel and deal in secret, but because it’s the law.

Simply put, the state law reads in part, “It is the public policy of this state that meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law.”

You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating. Open government is good for America. Open government means honest government. Double that up with freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment, and we have a checks and balances system second to none in the world.

That all sounds fine and dandy and makes for good mottos for newspapers to frame and place on the walls of the office, but a newspaper has to be aggressive enough and caring enough to put freedom of the press to work for you.

In the past few months, we have used the Sunshine Law to obtain information that appeared in The Salem News and thesalemnewsonline.com. We don’t always make a news story out of our requests, but sometimes we do. Our main goal is to make public information public, not to thump our chest about forcing someone or some office to come clean with the public. Playing nice is always best for all parties involved.

Decades ago I got my first taste of the Sunshine Law. I was in Mississippi, and a professor at one of the major universities there was arrested for organized gambling. The school refused to produce the paperwork on the charges, and so did local law enforcement.

“They can’t do that, can they?” this at-the-time young reporter asked in a news meeting of department heads.

“No, they can’t,” the publisher said. He then instructed me on how to make a public records request.

It took a little back and forth between lawyers, but within a month we had the public records that showed the professor was running betting sheets from fraternity house to fraternity house and keeping the 10 percent “juice money.” He went to jail for a while, and the frats were put on double-secret probation.

I have been a part of dozens of public records requests since, and none of them have failed to turn up public records. If not for the Sunshine Law and legislators willing to keep some teeth in it, there are a lot of things the public would never know. And in the case of government openness, sometimes what you don’t know can hurt you.