Open Records Act celebrates 30th anniversary

Texas celebrated the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Open Records Act (now called the Texas Public Information Act) last month with little fanfare.

The Senate on March 25 adopted a resolution marking the occasion and the 25th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. TPA second vice president Wanda Garner Cash, who also is president of FOIFT, was on the Senate floor for the resolution’s passage.

“There was no dissent so that was a good sign,” she said.

The FOIFT held an open records symposium in conjunction with the University of Texas School of Journalism March 26 at the Austin campus to mark the anniversary.

Former state Sen. Don Adams, who was in office when the original legislation was passed in 1973, offered a first-hand account of the political climate that led lawmakers to draft and approve the sweeping legislation that gives the public access to gov ernmental documents and records.

Adams cited two events — the 1970 Sharpstown scandal and the 1972 election of Gov. Bill Hobby — as keys to turning on the legislation.

The symposium also featured a panel discussion with panelists Dallas attorney Chip Babcock, UT J school director Lorraine Branham, Dallas Morning News reporter Steve McGonigle and Philadelphia Inquirer editor Henry Holcomb. Tony Pederson, who is retiring as senior vice president and editor of the Houston Chronicle, was the moderator.

Babcock said one significant change in the law occurred in 1995 when the Legislature brought the attorney general’s office into the enforcement end and cases since then are filed in Travis County. One of the challenges remains trying to inform the public that when a governmental entity fights release of public information they are spending taxpayer money, he said.

Branham, a former newspaper editor who took over at the J school about a year ago, said more attention needs to be given to student media that also fight battles for public information from their institutions.

She cited two recent examples with The Daily Texan newspaper at UT, including the staff’s battle to get records on campus security surveillance cameras.

“It’s frustrating to see the constant fighting that goes on to get records from the university,” Branham said.

McGonigle said reporters face battles with public officials over open records on a daily basis and oftentimes a formal open records request seems to carry the same weight with uncooperative entities as invoking the legal process.

“Depending on what kind of story you’re working on, that is almost the kiss of death,” he said.

He called on fellow journalists to constantly keep themselves and their readers educated about open government issues.

Babcock agreed and said the smaller the newspaper the greater community impact.

“You have a powerful weapon in your printer’s ink and your publication,” he said.

The symposium keynote speaker was Jane Kirtley, renowned media affairs expert and professor at the University of Minnesota. Kirtley, who also is the former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, offered insight into open records issues at the national level.

“The public’s skepticism of the First Amendment is posing some serious concerns,” Kirtley said.

According to a Pew Center study, 50 percent of Americans think the media is too aggressive and 49 percent say the First Amendment goes too far.

Kirtley pointed to several recent events that dealt blows to public access — passage of the U.S. Patriot Acts following 9/11 and a memo by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that gives governmental authorities support in closing public access by citing homeland security exemptions.

Kirtley also said a new executive order on classified information the administration issued this month is “silent on the issue” and permits reclassification of information previously not classified. She said that order differed from the previous administration’s stand, which said that if there was any doubt on why a document is classified it should not be secret.

Embedding of reporters with the U.S. military during the war in Iraq may seem like greater access but Kirtley cautioned about the dangers of this kind of relationship and said she was “saddened” that journalists might be losing their objective and independent voice.

“To a great extent these stories tend to be stories about the reporters,” she said of the early coverage of the war.

“How clever and savvy the military was in setting (embedding) up.”