The Importance of Understanding the Public Record and Open Meeting Laws
By Ryan Catanese
November 19, 2008

The most important aspect of journalism is being able to find the facts, the complete and unabridged facts.  It is the journalist’s responsibility to be the eyes and ears of the people on all matters, whether it’s who won the Panthers game or who won the Presidential election.

In order to be able to fulfill this duty journalists have to know their boundaries: where they can step and where they cannot step.  Most people don’t realize how far they can probe, and not doing this to find the absolute core truth in any story is a journalist not doing his or her job.

This is why it is absolutely imperative for a journalist to know the laws of his or her state, especially those pertaining to Open Meeting law and Public Record law.

In the “Journalist’s Creed,” Walter Williams said, “I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society, is indefensible.”  While the amateur journalist might not be intentionally committing this journalistic crime, not exploring the things that are public record or being turned down from it and, in turn, not reporting on it, is breaking the trust relationship between himself and his readership, and is a failure to complete his or her most important job.

If a journalist does not know the Public Record laws of his or her state to the word, the subjects of the piece are not always going out of their way to help him or her.  In other words, if a journalist is digging up an old police record on a major public figure, he or she cannot expect to get this document without some sort of a fight.

People are prone to hedge and mislead, people are prone to conceal, especially if they are the one being investigated.  They will cry foul if a journalist is digging up dirt on them.

The journalist must know, then, exactly what they can or cannot ask for or demand, because it will not often just be given to them on a silver platter; they might get turned down.

A journalist who does not know the law will go home, dejected, and will, first, not be fulfilling his or her obligation to the public, and second, be losing readers to the other newspaper, who had a journalist who knew the rules and got what he or she needed.

The same is true with meetings of local government.  According to North Carolina Open Meeting law, “whereas the public bodies that administer the legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, and advisory functions of North Carolina and its political subdivisions exist solely to conduct the people’s business, it is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings, deliberations, and actions of these bodies be conducted openly.”

The United States government has a system of checks and balances, but in reality, journalists are the truest form of a check on government that our society has.  An organization that has to answer to no one will soon go corrupt, and it is the job of the journalist to hold them accountable.

Journalists, however, are not alone in this endeavor.  There are organizations dedicated to the preservation of these laws and the rights of the journalist.

The North Carolina Open Government Coalition is one such organization.  On their website, they claim that their goal is to “unite organizations interested in ensuring and enhancing the public’s access to government activity, records and meetings. The nonpartisan coalition will educate people about their rights and support their efforts to gain access; advocate the principles and benefits of open government; and initiate or assist in legal proceedings when necessary.”

There are organizations like these in each state, because these are people who realize the importance of the journalist and the importance of holding governments accountable for their actions.

So, a journalist simply cannot be a true journalist without understanding these laws.  It is the most important law to understand and is truly one of the great deciders over who is a good journalist and who is a great one.