Our Principles

Information empowers and energizes a democracy.

The free flow of information serves to keep the processes of government honest and robust. To ensure and maintain that integrity and vitality, the public’s need-to-know and the individual’s right-to-know must be held paramount.

We believe that actions of government that limit or prevent access to information must serve a clear and compelling public purpose. Even then, those actions should be the exception, and must be limited in scope.

Within that broad conceptual framework, here are some principles that we believe should serve as guidelines whenever limits on public access are considered:

Government should never be closed by stealth. New legislation that would close records or meetings should stand on its own and be accompanied by an independent evaluation of the impact on public access.
In approving closure of records or meetings, lawmakers must find that there is a “compelling public necessity” that outweighs the people’s right of access to information about their government. The secrecy should never extend beyond the demonstrated need.
Anyone acting on behalf of government should be subject to open government laws.
"Government information" should be defined broadly and include information regardless of the form in which it was created or obtained by government.

Records

Records created or received by government, or anyone acting for government, are presumed to be public unless specifically exempted.
An exemption shields certain information, not the document. Records should not be denied because it is inconvenient to redact information that has been exempted.
Delay is denial. Records should be provided in a timely fashion.
High cost is also a form of denial. Copying of public records must be affordable.
Technology should be used to enhance public access, not to limit it.

Meetings

The discussions that lead to decision-making are as critical to the understanding of government as the final action taken. Meetings of government policy-making boards or commissions should be presumed open to the public unless exempted by lawmakers after public hearing and debate.
Any meeting, or portion of a meeting, closed under statutory exemption should nonetheless be recorded in its entirety. The recording should be retained and available for review when the stated-need for secrecy has passed, or by court order.