The daily work of a journalist involves showing up at wildfires and crime scenes, interviewing experts and asking tough questions of elected officials. We also attend meetings and pore over all manner of documents, including email correspondence among public officials, meeting minutes and police records.
Access to meetings and records is crucial for journalists to perform one of their most essential tasks: seeking the truth about how government is conducting the public’s business. In New Mexico, that access is enshrined in the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act and the Open Meetings Act. Both laws ensure that journalists — and all citizens — can peer behind the curtains powerful people sometimes attempt to keep drawn in an effort to conceal acts of malfeasance, corruption, or incompetence.
The two laws mandate that state and local agencies allow journalists access to factual and firsthand information – information that hasn’t been manipulated to hide something or tweaked to fit a political agenda. The laws demand that kind of transparency because it’s critical to understanding what’s really happening in New Mexico’s communities.
It’s Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate the laws that give citizens access to their government and the important work of journalists.
In the past year, New Mexico’s journalists have used public records to illuminate issues from a massive shake-up in the state’s behavioral health system to the erosion of our groundwater protections. Reporters have scrutinized the way guards treat inmates behind closed doors in New Mexico’s jails and prisons and how state officials took advantage of per diem reimbursements. Using public records, journalists shone a light on controversial police uses of force against citizens and pieced together the way the treasurer’s office in the state’s largest county used a suspect broker to invest millions of the public’s dollars.
And in every community statewide, reporters attend meetings and carefully document the important discussions and decisions that impact all New Mexicans’ lives.
Unfortunately, state government often shields public records to protect its own interests. Within the past year, four media organizations and one government transparency nonprofit have sued the state, alleging it is blocking access to public records.
We often think of the media in terms of breaking news. But, to borrow an old phrase, the media also provide a first draft of history for our communities. Journalists offer a clear-eyed look at the challenges New Mexicans face, whether they are related to law enforcement, education, the environment, the economy, safety, or public health.
Sometimes, we tell stories that are difficult to hear. But in order to tackle tough problems and thrive in the years to come, citizens must know the truth. This year, during Sunshine Week, we challenge journalists—and all citizens—across the state to take advantage of the Inspection of Public Records Act and the Open Meetings Act to seek that truth. And we ask that agencies step up compliance with the laws. We’ll all be better for it.
This editorial is from SPJ’s Rio Grande Chapter Board of Directors. It also appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/reader-view-keep-seeking-the-truth/article_5b86ba7c-442c-5c5a-b239-167bc1ce2115.html
