Sunshine Week, designated to promote open government, began Sunday. Journalists are particularly interested in this topic because its objectives help reporters access information to fulfill their public watchdog responsibility. But you have a vested interest in open government, as well.
Laws that require open government records and meetings help the media bring to light corruption, inefficiency and ineptness — or good practices. The overarching goal of open-government laws, though, is to make sure the public — you and everyone else — has access to government documents and decision-making processes.
In fact, the public uses the federal Freedom of Information Act to get to public records far more often than the working media do. According to the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, only about 6 percent of FOIA document requests are made by journalists.
The federal open records laws are supplemented by similar Indiana laws that guarantee you access to public meetings and all sorts of government records. The Indiana Public Access Counselor’s office is a good resource for information about these laws and to help you get access to government information. Visit www.in.gov/pac/ or call 800-228-6013 to seek advice or assistance in accessing state or local government records.
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The Herald Bulletin wants you to feel informed and comfortable about submitting news for publication. To that end, we’ve created a pamphlet that explains how to get your news into the newspaper and onto our Web site. The pamphlet contains contact information for the newsroom and advice about where and how to submit items on local events, meetings and organizations, as well as how to pitch story ideas.
Stop by our customer service counter during business hours 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to pick up a copy of the pamphlet. Or, if you’d like a representative of The Herald Bulletin to present the pamphlet at a meeting of your organization, just shoot an e-mail to me or give me a call. We’ll do the best we can to agree on a date and time.
In the next few weeks, I’ll be announcing dates the newspaper sets up to invite members of the community to come in to hear a presentation about how to get your news into the newspaper. Please watch for more information in this weekly column.
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If you’re as big a basketball fan as I am, you’ll want to participate in The Herald Bulletin’s Bracketbucks contest in conjunction with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The two-page brackets and entry form for the contest will be printed in Tuesday’s newspaper. You earn points toward prizes by correctly predicting the outcome of the tournament games.
I love competing in office pools and contests (THB employees are not eligible for Bracketbucks) related to the tournament every year. But I can never resist the urge to pick a lot of underdogs, which always leads to my undoing. So this year, I’m going with all the No. 1 seeds to reach the Final Four. … On second thought, I think I’ll sneak Montana and Lehigh in there!
Editor Scott Underwood’s column appears Mondays. Contact him at scott.underwood@heraldbulletin.com or 640-4845.
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Scott Underwood: Sunshine on gov’t makes me happy
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