Opinion

The premise of Sunshine Week, the annual national celebration of access to public information taking place this week, is that citizens have the right to know what their government is doing.

Jim Zachary, editor of the Valdosta Daily Times (Ga.), has it right:

“Every action of government is your business.

Every document held in government halls is your piece of paper.

Every penny spent by government is your money.

From the courthouse to the statehouse to the White House, government belongs to the governed and not the governing.

You have the right to know what the governing are up to, always.”

Those truths may seem obvious, but every year, efforts are made to whittle away at the public’s rights. This year in Colorado, amendments added to legislation written to expand public access to government records would instead restrict access. National media are alarmed by ever-increasing secrecy in government.

The Washington Post recently added, right below its name, the warning: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Sunshine laws requiring governmental officials and agencies to operate in the full light of day help to ensure that governmental actions benefit citizens, not special interests – a safeguard that only works if citizens are paying attention.

Colorado has a relatively strong open-meetings law requiring elected bodies to make decisions in view of the public. That means public servants must own up to their actions – if constituents come to meetings or at least consume media coverage and demand accountability.

Open-records acts enable the public to follow up on how governments really work. How much does a public board spend on travel, lodging and meals when its members attend meetings? How far away does the nearest registered sex offender live? How much tax revenue do marijuana sales bring in? Are public officials saying the same thing in their emails, which they often believe will not be read by the public, as they are in public meetings?

Are we being represented well? That’s a public interest, not a media invention.

Support public and media efforts to keep meetings open and records available because that is how the governed know what the governing are up to. Otherwise, democracy really cannot work.