Archive for August, 2010
With a barrage of new bills attacking public notices in newspapers, publishers and other activists in Tennessee are fighting back. In an editorial published on August 16th, the Knox News attacked the government’s financial justification for removing notices from newspapers. The editorial highlights the transparency and accountability issues involved in putting public notices on websites.
“Arguments for change ignore the historical reasons for publishing public notices,” stated Frank Gibson, director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.”
“They are about open government. They are about transparency. They are about accountability to citizens, taxpayers, voters, consumers, homeowners, vendors wanting to provide goods and services to the government, and others. They are a hedge against government secrecy.”
Other issues are that government websites are not secure or dependable. The sites have no operating standards and many local governments don’t even have websites.
Click on the following links to read the full editorial and the full article by Mr. Gibson:
Can government be trusted to give “public notice?”, (August 16, 2010)
Proposed public notices changes take narrow view, (August 2010, see page 9 for article )
August 2 – As a follow-up on our initial coverage of New Jersey SB 2072, we wanted to bring your attention to an article in an article by the Citizen’s Campaign, a non-partisan New Jersey organization. The campaign highlighted the importance of public notices in newspapers as a means of keeping the government accountable.
“Publication of government notices are a worthwhile expenditure that serves the public by providing a concrete record to hold government accountable and by informing citizens of government action,” Citizens’ Campaign Chair Harry Pozycki said.
“In today’s fast-paced wireless world, websites can be edited or deleted by a single click of a mouse, with little or no oversight.”
For your convenience, a link to the full article is below:
Legislation Removing Requirement for Public Notices Threatens Competition and Government Integrity, (7.29.2010)
An attempt to keep government in the dark?, (7.20.2010) – This blog post also criticizes the negative effects of allowing bills like SB 2072 to pass.