In Our View: Shine Light on Democracy

Welcome to Sunshine Week. No, that doesn’t mean our skies will suddenly clear. Rather, it’s an annual observation of the critical role that open government and freedom of information at the local, state and federal levels play in our democracy.

In this era of an “us vs. them” attitude toward journalists, where the president of the United States labels the media “the enemy of the American people,” it’s crucial Americans recognize that our nation cannot be former President Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill” without transparency from its leaders and access to the information that wouldn’t have been collected without taxpayer dollars.

“Now, more than ever, Americans are urged to recognize the importance of open government to a robust democracy,” Mizell Stewart III of Gannett/USA Today Network wrote. “Access to meetings, minutes and records of our elected and appointed representatives is a key element of the constitutional right to petition the government for redress of grievances. It is not strictly for the benefit of the news media.”

But how many would be willing to put in the effort it takes to gather the information printed regularly in The Columbian? Every day, our readers are provided news about topics as varied as birth announcements, death notices, court proceedings, restaurant health inspections, building permits and meeting agendas for elected bodies and neighborhood associations. Most take that information for granted, but it is public records laws that ensure The Columbian can continue to get that information to keep our readers informed. Those laws also provide our reporters the tools they need for longer, investigative pieces.

Such information comes from sources that are clearly stated for readers: local hospitals, the courts, the city of Vancouver and Clark County, for instance. Columbian reporters attribute where they get their information, including sources named in news stories and documents gathered by reporters. Those documents are often posted to our website so readers can peruse them for themselves.

This diligence also applies to the wire services The Columbian subscribes to. Some readers on occasion take issue with wire stories, claiming they exhibit bias. But objective reading shows those reporters, too, cite their sources, quote documents, etc. So, one might dislike a particular news report, but when the story cites its sources, it can’t be dismissed as “fake news,” either. Remember, just because one doesn’t agree with a story’s subject doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

While actions by the Trump administration have sounded alarms for the media, it is not alone in attempting to control the information relayed to citizens. As the Associated Press reported, “Freedom of speech has long been championed more in theory than in reality. Abraham Lincoln’s administration shut down hundreds of newspapers during the Civil War. Woodrow Wilson championed the people’s ‘indisputable right to criticize their own public officials,’ but also signed legislation during World War I making it a crime to ‘utter, print, write, or publish’ anything ‘disloyal’ or ‘profane’ about the federal government. During the administration of President Barack Obama, who had taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, the Wilson-era Espionage Act was used to obtain emails and phone records of reporters and threaten James Risen of The New York Times with jail.”

So during Sunshine Week, take a moment to reflect on all the information we in the United States have a right to receive. Those rights could easily be curtailed if we — regular citizens and news media alike — take for granted how essential such information is to our democracy.