Last week marked Sunshine Week. It’s the annual observance of a keystone tenet of governance – one that distinguishes free people from those not so fortunate.
Put simply, it is the belief – and continual action around same – that government’s business extraordinary and ordinary alike is best conducted in the clear light of day. And not, as a matter of routine, behind closed doors.
That is a point around which we should all be able to gather, even in this ever-bickering age. A transparent government and liberty are inseparable – or should be.
This is a time-honored concept. The Declaration of Independence, in reciting the natural rights of humankind, next states “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed … .”
Keeping government’s workings and decisions transparent is a necessary element of that continuing grant of authority to our government.
It’s easy then to understand why routine secrecy, improperly clandestine meetings and overarching secrecy have no reputable place among the apparatus that necessarily governs the affairs of free people.
Yes, on exceedingly rare occasions, a narrow sliver of governmental affairs warrant being conducted outside the public’s purview. Such cases should be glaringly infrequent and the justification for secrecy brightly apparent to all.
Guarding against government’s tendency toward cloakroom deals and overuse of “secret” stamps is work that often falls to journalists. We freely take on this task and work to bring inconvenient facts and truths into the public square. In that sense, we act as agents of the governed because the right to pursue and demand open government is one equally held by all U.S. citizens.
In a time when trust of government is at historic lows, it has never been more worthwhile for Georgians and Americans to demand openness in their government. Recent work by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution proves the need for increased transparency. The phrase “state secret” is sprinkled about far too frequently around here.
The Georgia First Amendment Foundation’s Legislative Watch listed last week more than a dozen bills before the state Legislature that touch on aspects of secrecy, open records and government-granted anonymity. All bear watching, even those that stalled on Crossover Day this year.
At literally the top of this list is HB 71, which would affect the super-secretive State Board of Pardons and Paroles. The First Amendment group sees the bill as a positive if it becomes law because it would require some increased transparency by the pardons board, which is literally charged at times with life-and-death decisions.
The bill would require the board when granting pardons or commuting death sentences to make public a record of how members voted and “include the board’s findings which reflect the board’s consideration of the evidence offered that supports the board’s decision.”
That would be an improvement over the cloak of secrecy that the board currently drapes over its important work. We agree with the foundation that the bill “could be improved with additional openness requirements.” Yet, HB 71 is a substantive start. One that should become law this year.
Georgians interested in how their government conducts its affairs should review the group’s summary of secrecy-related legislation at www.gfaf.org.
Government openness is a national issue as well. A bill to update the national Freedom of Information Act is before that band of grandstanders known as the U.S. Congress. They, and federal agencies that seem intent on maintaining more than their share of curtains around operations, likewise demand citizen scrutiny and calls for action.
The cause of freedom is interwoven in our ability to observe government at work. In this regard, knowledge is surely power.
