Order photos

Opinion: Public information protections help keep us informed

by | Mar 14, 2019 | Opinion

This is Sunshine Week, an annual media campaign that highlights the need — and right — to know what our elected officials are doing and how our tax dollars are being spent.

The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said it best: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants ….”

In other words, public officials and others are more likely behave when they know that people are watching.

Many officials or group leaders try to shed that light. In some more repressive countries they control media and even restrict public access to radio, television and internet outlets. They withhold information about their actions, and try to delegitimize news media by trying to convince people that they only offer “fake news.”

Our government is designed to utilize public participation, by voting officials in and out of office, attending meetings and hearings and petitioning our government for certain actions. So those meetings must be open to the public, and notice of those meetings must be published so that the people can attend if they wish. That’s why everyone, not just the news media, must have full access to public information.

Officials might consider such oversight a nuisance, thinking they could do their work more efficiently if people would just stay out of the way. But, as the many criminal cases against Rio Grande Valley officials over the years have shown, some elected officials abuse their access to the public purse strings to benefit themselves, friends and family.

And so it’s important to maintain vigilance, and news media have a two-pronged commitment to our public. We report the news, and also wage a constant campaign to defend public access to information, so that you can decide for yourselves what news is valid and which is fake.

Vigilance is especially important this year when the Texas Legislature is in session. Members of the Texas Press Association, including this newspaper, and other organizations are monitoring bills that affect public access to information. We will support those that support public access and oppose those that try to restrict it.

Government officials and offices can put up roadblocks ranging from outright denial to unreasonable fees for providing public information. Or they can make legal challenges that can make people question whether the information is worth the trouble.

The public’s right to know is worth it, and that is why media outlets across the country combine their efforts this week to highlight the public’s right to information about their government.

Of course, that right, and our efforts, continue year-round. But during this Sunshine Week, we shine the light a little brighter on the need to keep the public informed, and our government accountable.

 

By Carlos A. RodriguezOpinion Editor for The Brownsville Herald

Rotary Golf 2024

0 Comments

Related News

Texas counties among nations’s fastest growing

Texas counties among nations’s fastest growing

Recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that six of the 10 fastest-growing counties in the United States from 2022 to 2023 were in Texas. According to the Texas Tribune, Kaufman County, just east of Dallas, led the list with a 7.6% increase in new...

read more
Read this. Build a stronger community.

Read this. Build a stronger community.

Saddened. Embarrassed. Determined. These three words evoke distinct feelings and emotions. In the context of an opinion piece we ran in the paper four and a half years ago, they described the aftermath of a community that lost its newspaper. After 130 years in...

read more
Just like mom used to make

Just like mom used to make

Men have man caves because they want the room they had as a kid back. They also spend the rest of their days trying to find the recipes of their favorite childhood dishes. The ones like their mom used to make. By John Moore For more on this story see the March 7, 2024...

read more
Pet ownership: A lifetime commitment

Pet ownership: A lifetime commitment

He was crossing the road. Over and over. I was surprised someone hadn’t hit him with their car. I was also surprised the coyotes hadn’t gotten him. It was 9 o’clock at night and according to the residents of the small strip of country road, he’d been out there for a...

read more
Hold, please

Hold, please

It appears that telephone landlines may be on their way out. CNN Business reported that recently, AT&T applied for a waiver in the state of California to stop servicing traditional landlines. Both AT&T and Verizon have both said they want to move away from...

read more
Dewey or don’t we?

Dewey or don’t we?

On Christmas Eve 2008, there were just three of us working in the office. Well, technically, there was one of us working, the other two were there. A couple of the young ladies on staff either didn’t have enough vacation time built up or they were saving it for...

read more
A range of options

A range of options

My great grandparents lived on a homestead. They cooked on a wood stove. Most of us today have no idea how good we’ve got it. For my great grandparents’ generation, remodeling the kitchen meant picking a different place to stack the wood. By John Moore For more on...

read more
A word from our sponsors

A word from our sponsors

Commercials used to be great. They used to be an art form. They used to be fun. Today’s advertising is boring in comparison. Television commercials were something to which I looked forward when I was a kid. Some were better developed and more interesting than the...

read more
On the road again

On the road again

We often hear someone say they just want to leave the world a better place than they found it. That’s a great goal, but rarely is it the case. Unless you were Charles Kuralt. For those of us who grew up during his time on the CBS News segment, On The...

read more
Subscribe Love