2008 Woodie Awards
Let the Sun Shine on the Freedom
Brett Shiells
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Culture
"There's an old joke that our federal government is the government furthest from the people," U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson said. What's so funny about that?
Washington used to be hard to reach because it was so far from most people, Thompson said, but technology has fixed the problem. Fixed must mean five phone calls, credentials, and three days of waiting to speak to your congressman for 10 minutes.
Thompson said that when he wanted information on salmon in the Klamath, getting it with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request couldn't have been easier. Yet a group of Florida newspaper editors in 2005 had so much trouble accessing public records that they started a movement.
Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide media campaign beginning Monday, March 16, hopes to change the status quo by inviting dialogue about the openness of government and freedom of information, local contact Sherolyn Hutton said.
"I think it's so important," Hutton said. "I want people to be informed."
Both Arcata's city council and the county board of supervisors have proclaimed March 16-22 Sunshine Week, Hutton said. There won't be any specific events, she said, but local media will have an editorial focus on transparency in government.
Hutton, president of Humboldt's League of Women Voters, said there's a big worry about the FOIA being amended because of security concerns. Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, she said, there have been many instances where information previously available to the public became classified.
"If you had wanted to get it before 9/11 and could," Hutton said, "it seems worthless now for the government to say that you can't have it."
The goal of Sunshine Week is to let people know that they can still find public records in the wake of the USA PATRIOT Act, a law giving the government expansive surveillance powers, Hutton said. She hopes to get people interested in attending public meetings, requiring accountability, and being aware of what they have a right to know.
Washington used to be hard to reach because it was so far from most people, Thompson said, but technology has fixed the problem. Fixed must mean five phone calls, credentials, and three days of waiting to speak to your congressman for 10 minutes.
Thompson said that when he wanted information on salmon in the Klamath, getting it with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request couldn't have been easier. Yet a group of Florida newspaper editors in 2005 had so much trouble accessing public records that they started a movement.
Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide media campaign beginning Monday, March 16, hopes to change the status quo by inviting dialogue about the openness of government and freedom of information, local contact Sherolyn Hutton said.
"I think it's so important," Hutton said. "I want people to be informed."
Both Arcata's city council and the county board of supervisors have proclaimed March 16-22 Sunshine Week, Hutton said. There won't be any specific events, she said, but local media will have an editorial focus on transparency in government.
Hutton, president of Humboldt's League of Women Voters, said there's a big worry about the FOIA being amended because of security concerns. Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, she said, there have been many instances where information previously available to the public became classified.
"If you had wanted to get it before 9/11 and could," Hutton said, "it seems worthless now for the government to say that you can't have it."
The goal of Sunshine Week is to let people know that they can still find public records in the wake of the USA PATRIOT Act, a law giving the government expansive surveillance powers, Hutton said. She hopes to get people interested in attending public meetings, requiring accountability, and being aware of what they have a right to know.
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Bill Alexander
posted 3/13/08 @ 2:59 PM PST
It would have been more useful if the article had talked about how one uses the FOIA, and maybe the experience of trying to do so.
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