passopenrecords.org

Now that the long trek is over and Pennsylvania has a new open records law – or will have after January 1, 2009 – the original intent of this blog is coming to a close. We have not decided what 00 if anything – to do with it in the future, and we welcome your input. For the next few weeks, I will post reactions to the la, thoughts about the future, and stories about open records issues across the Commonwealth.

The new is by no means perfect, but it is levels of magnitude better than the one we have had for more than 50 years. The critical difference – from which all else flows – is the “flip of presumption – that now makes public records public property unless there is a clear and specific reason to withhold them. The corollary of that changes is that it is now the government agency – not the citizen for whom it works – that has the burden of proving why a document should not be released to the public.

Here is what Angela Couloumbis of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported some as saying about the change. Please add your voice to theirs.

“There is nothing in the bill that is unusually open or exotic – but it does call for good, solid, mainstream, ordinary transparency,” said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a nonprofit organization that tracks open-records laws around the country.

“Is it a perfect bill?” asked Gov. Ed Rendell rhetorically. “No. Is it a good bill? Absolutely. Is it a step on the road to reform? Without a doubt.”

“It is a turning point in the relationship between citizens and their government,” said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware), the law’s prime sponsor. “For the first time in over 50 years, we have a modern, responsive open-records law in Pennsylvania and one that should substantially change the dynamic between citizens and their government.”

But said Larry Frankel, legislative director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the exemption given to autopsy records “is one aspect of the law that really concerns us. We’ve learned that good investigative reporters have been able to use such reports as key elements in their investigations of wrongful convictions.”

Still, “it’s a great step forward, and it brings us into the more progressive community of states,” said Michael Baughman, a partner with Pepper Hamilton and an expert in media law.

And said Robert Richards, a Penn State professor of journalism and law and the founding co-director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Penn State, “You can always go back in and amend it. What is momentous is that the [legislature] passed it. I never thought I would see any type of open-records legislation in my career here.”

Thanks to all of you for making this blog a vital place. As Howard Greenstein, who was instrumental in putting this on line in the first place, wrote on his blog,

“Congratulations all around. I hope this blog serves as an example of how to create dialog around an issue using Social Media.”

Let’s keep the conversation going.