Editorial
Let the Sunshine In

Information is the lifeblood of our democracy. Yet, too few citizens know that they have the right to see much of the information that our government produces.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors and dozens of other press organizations hope to change that with the introduction of Sunshine Week on March 13.

It can’t come soon enough, as more and more public information is being declared off-limits by government agencies, especially at the federal level.

Though it’s sponsored by press organizations, this is an event for all New Yorkers and Americans to participate in.

Why? Because secrecy in government is antithetical to American democracy and is harmful to its citizens.

Here’s a very local example. In the mid-1990s, the Norwood News investigated repeated delays in the construction of PS 20 on Webster Avenue. The school was supposed to take about three years to build, but ended up taking six. By filing a request under New York State’s Freedom of Information Law, known as FOIL, this newspaper was able to acquire documents that revealed severe problems at the site, including construction piles being driven into unstable parts of the ground, and lapses in oversight. We believe that our dogged reporting on this issue prevented further delays at PS 20 and provided an incentive for the School Construction Authority (SCA) to finish several other area schools on time in subsequent years. Much of that reporting would not have been possible without the FOIL.

Reporters all around the country use state and federal freedom of information laws to gather information that sometimes has life-and-death consequences.

But it’s not just the Norwood News and other news media that have used FOIL requests effectively. Community organizations and private citizens have successfully used the FOIL to get public documents about a variety of community projects including the water filtration plant and the Kingsbridge Armory.

Many government agencies have begun to clamp down on information, using the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 as an excuse. We hope it will become clear to most Americans that withholding public documents and choking off the flow of information threatens our democracy. These are not the rights of newspapers or TV stations. They are the rights of all of us. And, as with a muscle, these rights will atrophy if they are not regularly exercised.

Education about the right to information, and how to secure it, should begin in grade school. Kids can learn how many housing code violations their apartment buildings have by looking up their address on the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Web site. They can look up how their precinct is doing on crime prevention by viewing the weekly CompStat reports on the Police Department’s Web site. And if there’s information that’s not available on-line, they can call the appropriate city agency. If that is unsuccessful, they can file a FOIL request. Sunshine Week would be a great time to try this out (more information at www.sunshineweek.org).

The state’s Committee on Open Government, a public entity that was formed in 1974 by the Freedom of Information Law, publishes a pamphlet entitled “Your Right to Know” that explains the FOIL and provides a sample letter to government agencies. Just call the Committee at (518) 474-2518 to request a copy, or visit www.dos.state.ny.us/ 

We’ll give James Madison, the fourth U.S. president and shaper of the Constitution, the last word here.

“A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy — or perhaps both.”
 

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