The Advocate. April 19, 2022.
Editorial: Don’t restrict information to what only government agencies want to deliver
Making government transparent is always going to be a work in progress. The Louisiana Press Association is at the forefront of providing public notices in a variety of formats, including online portals.
But fundamental to the process is government making the information available. We urge the Legislature to be careful to avoid an abrupt shutdown of the time-tested requirements that are basic to open government.
Senate Bill 322, by state Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, would allow — in the name of savings from the small amount of money governments spend on legally required advertising — agencies to only refer readers to a website, email address or phone number.
This is obviously problematic in a state where about a fourth of residents don’t have access to broadband internet at all; others can’t afford it if it is available. But the bill also sharply limits what’s available to the reader upfront, information for anyone to see without the burden of contacting officialdom.
In an age when raising questions can be intimidating for an average citizen, do we want to add a hurdle to finding out what’s going on — whether it’s the agenda for a meeting or a sheriff’s sale of property, rezoning or any of a thousand other ways government can affect people’s lives? Face it, many governments aren’t exactly known for being good communicators.
Under the new scheme envisioned by SB322, a citizen might have to go through literally hundreds of websites of Louisiana governments for what is today provided in a more accessible format. Today’s system also protects governments against lawsuits that they have failed to notify people of actions; we can foresee quarrels over whether an agency’s employees in fact provided the information sought by an aggrieved party.
We think the bill’s conception of savings is problematic, too. The staffing and tech costs of transparency are today outsourced to news professionals; those costs are going to be part of government budgets without any compensating efficiencies, much less third-party oversight of the flow of information to the people.
Legal advertising is also an economic issue for small dailies and weekly newspapers across the state. For larger news organizations like ours, thanks to readers and advertisers, it’s not the margin of existence — but it often is in rural Louisiana. The phrase “news deserts” isn’t an exaggeration and communities suffer when their small but vital news outlets shrink.
We enjoy being at the forefront of distributing news digitally but that is not the situation of our brethren across the state in smaller cities and towns. Today’s system is working, and we should not lightly set it aside.
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