Mississippi Legislature tackling key bills that would improve transparency
If you’re a champion of open government, then for the past several years you’ve lived in an exciting but bewildering time.
Thanks to smartphones and high-speed Internet access, the tools of instant communication are more accessible today than ever before. And public interest in the activities of government has never been higher.
On your telephone, you can watch a live video from an event happening halfway around the world. On a tablet device no larger than a comic book, you can download and watch a full-length film.
It ought to be easier than ever for Mississippians to get an up-close view of their government at work.
Unfortunately, too many of Mississippi’s institutions of government still behave as though it were the Dark Ages.
Since 1983, the Public Records Act has recognized that the products of government are public property. Under the law, if you want to review a court file or read the minutes from a city council meeting, then that is your right.
But for years, if you wanted a reliable chance of taking advantage of that right, then all the smartphones and tablets in the world couldn’t help you. What you really needed were deep pockets and a room full of lawyers.
That’s not the way it ought to be. That’s no way for a democratic government to behave. And that’s not the Mississippi that the framers of the Public Records Act envisioned more than 30 years ago.
Fortunately, the Mississippi Legislature still has a chance to level the playing field a little bit.
Gulflive
3/17/14
Magnolia Tribune
