JPROF - JEM 230 - Public records, public information

Home > Courses > JEM 230 > JEM 230 Lecture notes: Public records, public information

Clickers - make sure you have your clicker and that it is registered properly. Here are the OIT instructions for registering your clicker. Bring it to class. You will need to be on Channel 5 for this course.

Public records, public information

The First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So what does the First Amendment have to do with open records and open government? A lot, actually.

What the First Amendment describes, aside from its legal implications, is an open government and open society. Why would free speech, free press, right to assembly and right to petition matter if we didn't know what's going on with our government? If government officials were meeting in secret? If they were making decisions and spending money that we didn't know about?

So, for the First Amendment to work in a practical world, we have to know what's going on. Then we can think about it, write about it, speak about it and petition to have it changed.

The fact is, we DO live in a relatively free and open society. Relatively.

The fact also is that most government officials, and even most Americans, do not believe in the basic tenants and operation of First Amendment.

That's why it's important for journalists to believe WHOLEHEARTEDLY in the First Amendment (IMHO).

If we don't, who else will?

If we don't demand openness from the government, who will?

Journalists should develop an attitude of openness. They should assume that all information is available. They should seek all kinds of information, particularly from government sources. They should never accept unchallenged, particularly from government officials, a sentiment that the public doesn't need to know this or doesn't have a right to this information.

Governmental secrecy

Governmental officials inevitably want to keep information away from the public; they want to cover up the way they operate; they want to meet in secret; they do not want to give an accounting of their actions.

They are this way because

-- it is inconvenient to be open and accessible

-- they might get criticized or embarrassed

-- they are simply arrogant and don't believe the public has a right to the information they have

-- they are acting with nefarious motives

That's why we have open meetings and open records laws at the state level and the Freedom of Information Act at the federal level.

Tennessee's Open Records law

Tennessee Annotated Code 10-7-503: "All state county and municipal records ... shall at all times, during business hours, be open for public inspection by any citizen of Tennessee, and those in charge of such records shall not refuse such right of inspection to any citizen, unless provided by state law."

Tennessee law provides

-- any citizen may ask for a record
-- there is a presumption of openness
-- looking at a record is free
-- reasonable fees for copying
-- public record include autopsies, salaries, disciplinary records, police blotters, arrest records, etc.
-- state has an Office of Open Records Counsel

Tennessee's open meetings law, which forces government bodies to meet publicly and to give notice of their meetings, is also considered strong.

T.C.A. § 8-44-101(a): The general assembly hereby declares it to be the policy for this state that the formation of public policy and decisions is public business and shall not be conducted in secret.

The Act is to be construed most favorably to the public and applies to every meeting of a governing body except where statutory exclusion exists.
The Act does not guarantee citizens the right to participate in meetings but rather to attend and observe.

But, even with strong laws, problems come with implementation.

Getting information

Not everything is on the web. Some things you have to go out and find. You will even have to ask people for them. They exist, but you have to find them.

Ask what records are available. Look at record lists if they are available.

Explain why you want it. Not: "I need it to do a story." Rather: "I'm trying to understand more about how this works so I can explain it in a story that I am doing. I need to know this, this, and this. If you could help me, that would be great." Legally, you don't have to explain it. Practically, you may need to do this to get the record more quickly.

Learn and understand the law. There are more than 200 exceptions to the Tennessee open records law. But, most people don't know what they are. Find out what some of them are. Then, when someone wants to deny you, you can say, "That isn't covered by the exceptions."

Make a specific request for a record or set of records within a certain time period.

Look at a record before asking that it be copied or paying the copying fee. In other words, know what you are getting and paying for. Looking doesn't cost you anything.

Be polite but be persisent. The people on the other side of the counter may be busy, but providing access to information is part of their job.

Access Across America from Jim Stovall on Vimeo.

David Cullier, chair of the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, talks about the importance of being able to access public records. This is a portion of the presentation he gave in Knoxville, Tenn., on May 17, 2010, during his Access Across America tour. More information on this tour can be found at http://spj.org/aaa.asp.

Examples of information you can find online

All kinds of information about colleges and higher education:
http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/trends/higher-ed-landscape

Information on higher education in Tennessee:
http://www.state.tn.us/thec/

Traffic fatalities:
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

KnoxNews databases
http://www.knoxnews.com/data/

Airlines, Airports, and Delays:
http://www.transtats.bts.gov/OT_Delay/OT_DelayCause1.asp

Federal Election Contributions:
http://www.opensecrets.org

Tennessee Campaign Contributions:
http://tennessee.gov/tref/

Executive Salaries
http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/

Knox County Property Information
http://www.kgis.org/knoxnetwhere/viewer.asp

Federal Law enforcement data
http://trac.syr.edu/

Pollution Information
http://www.scorecard.org/

Sexual Offender Registry in Tennessee
http://www.tbi.state.tn.us/sex_ofender_reg/sex_ofender_reg.shtml

Bureau of Justice Statistics (good for looking for trends in regards to crime):
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

For information about businesses/companies:
www.hoovers.com

Environmental Protection Agency (the Newsroom section on the site):
www.epa.gov

And, the Census web site is always a good resource for finding data on a multitude of stories: www.census.gov

Poverty: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html
www.worldbank.org/poverty/

Property Taxes:
https://knoxgov.net/trustee/tax_search/index.php

Weekly news quiz

You can find some of the quiz questions that might be asked in lecture here.