As Sunshine Week draws to a close, we’ll continue our coverage of issues being discussed in the 2007 Florida legislature with a look at access to information.
As with the issue of e-voting, there’s movement at both the state and the federal level on freedom of information and open government. (See this post at EFF’s Deep Links for more information.) However, there’s an important distinction. With e-voting, the federal law is likely to mandate actions by the states; with freedom of information, the federal law will apply to federal agencies. In order words, federal action here isn’t likely to butt heads with movement in Tallahassee.
As a consequence of this federalism, a bad law in one jurisdiction doesn’t carry over to the other jurisdiction. On the other hand, a good law in one jurisdiction doesn’t carry over, either. But let’s focus on the movement at the state level.
Freedom of information is an apposite subject for anyone interested in influencing government (not to mention citizens simply interested in good government). EFF’s FLAG Project demonstrates the importance of freedom of information to free culture activists.
The question of access to government documents is especially germane to Free Culture in two aspects: First, access to electronic documents and online access. There are several interesting issues here: refusing to provide electronic documents in an electronic format (”Here’s the printout of the 700-page spreadsheet you requested. That’ll be $300 for the copies and labor”), providing electronic documents in proprietary file formats, providing preemptive access to documents online.
An example of the first issue surfaced this week in a report published in the Orlando Sentinel. The report found technological barriers, delays, or high costs in getting access to e-mails from the governments of several central Florida counties.
An example of the third issue is the July 2006 Florida Supreme Court order in re: Implementation of Report and Recommendations of the Committee on Privacy and Court Records. Florida’s court system has struggled with the question of under what conditions to provide access to all court documents online. The Supreme Court’s order tries to resolve the issue. As the order notes:
The bundle of issues regarding privacy, confidentiality and access to court records is connected inextricably within the larger context of the integration of emerging technologies into modern society, and these issues are not merely technical but are central to the future functioning of the courts and to relations between citizens and their government.
The second notable aspect of open government involves online and non-traditional media such as bloggers or citizen journalists. Journalists receive special treatment under some public records laws, and so the question arises of whether and under what conditions a blogger is a journalist under the law. The EFF’s Blogger FAQ has entries on media access and the Freedom of Information Act.
These two aspects of freedom of information law lead FreeCulture.org to launch its Blogshine Sunday project for Sunshine Week 2005.
So what’s happening in Florida? Well, Florida Politics has a roundup of reporting and opinions across the state for Sunshine Week (scroll down to “Sunshine Sunday”). Among them is the story of 20 bills which propose new exemptions to Florida’s public records laws.
Over in the executive branch, Gov. Crist’s first executive order in office created the Office of Open Government — a fact Crist noted in both his inaugural speech and his 2007 State of the State address. The executive order notes that
the Office’s primary functions will be: (1) to assure full and expeditious compliance with Florida’s open government and public records laws, and (2) to provide training to all executive agencies under my purview on transparency and accountability. The Office will also have primary responsibility for ensuring that the Office of the Governor complies with public records requests in an expeditious manner.
Gov. Crist also released a proclamation recognizing Sunshine Week, and gave the keynote address at the annual luncheon of the First Amendment Foundation.
The March 15 edition of Capital Report has an interview with Adria Harper of the First Amendment Foundation with an update from the legislative session. The story starts at around 8:25 in the recording.
The Foundation’s Web site has more information about Florida’s public records laws, as do UF’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project.
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