Open Records Law

The way I interpret the new “open records” law is that now, in order to obtain a public record in the state of Georgia, after sending in a request, you have to wait three months for them to approve and send you a copy of the record. Three months is a very long time.

I don’t think this law is necessarily fair to anyone. Especially because the new timeline is ridiculous compared to what it was.

To go from three days wait period to three months is a huge jump. I don’t understand how law makers came to that number. I could see maybe a month or six weeks but not three months.

This makes reporting, solving crime cases, and just obtaining general information much harder. It also comes off as trying to hide something or to put it off as long as possible.

One way to solve this problem could be varying wait times for how sensitive the information is.

For example, things that are considered general information but are not readily available, their wait time would be shorter than something to the effect of tax returns or someone’s contract demands.

While I think all laws are there for a reason, there is a level of sensibility that must be maintained. Three months goes beyond the level of being sensible.

So I think that the structure of the open records law needs to be revisited and revised that way people can obtain information in a more sensible amount of time.

FOIA law is unfair to journalists and the public’s best interest

The new FOIA law in Georgia only requires that athletic programs respond to open records requests within 90 business days. That’s not even necessarily the deadline for when the records are given. All the law requires is that a response is given by that time. Previously, and still for records unrelated to athletics, the law required a response be given within three days. This massive difference completely changes how quickly information is available to journalists and to the public.

On UGA’s site about open records, it says, “Placing unnecessary barriers between the people and the records to which the law entitles them access serves no positive purpose for the institution.” However, to me it seems that lengthening the time between an open records request and when a response is provided, is only there to benefit the institution. It almost eliminates transparency. By the time the records arrive in the hands of journalists, the news will be far in the past. That’s not to say this should be a deterrent to investigative work. It still needs to be done, but now it’s not best serving the public.

I don’t think this law is fair to journalists, other records requesters or the public’s interest. I believe that one of the roles of journalists is to hold institutions accountable for their actions and decisions. Without somewhat speedy access to open records, it is not possible to do this. And institutions that are free to act as they wish without proper checks are dangerous.

Module 5: Open records, court cases, and the Freedom of Information Act

Introduction: For many of the kinds of stories you’re going to be doing, you’ll need to know how to get certain kinds of information, primarily but not exclusively online. Some information is only a Google away, but a lot of it has to be requested, formally or informally. In this module, we will talk about proprietary information, public information, and the differences between the two, and we’ll discuss how to get them in different forms.

Learning objectives:

Finding legal information online
Filing FOIA requests
Verifying information
FOIA and ethics

Steps to completion:

Background:

Read over the following as well as finding news coverage on your own of the recent change to Georgia’s Open Records Act regarding collegiate athletics departments. Write a blog post in the Module 5 category using the tag “open records” explaining the new law and whether you believe it’s fair to journalists, other records requesters, and the public’s interest by Sept. 28.
Read over the complaint in the Jenkins, et al. v. NCAA, et al. case and write up a short blog in Module 4 summarizing the case and potential stories arising from it using the tag “Jenkins” by Oct. 3.
~~PENDING: Read stories by CBS Sports reporter Jon Solomon and tweet three questions at him (@jonsolomoncbs) about how he got information he used in at least one story by Oct. 3.~~

Reflective:

Class discussion Sept. 29: FOIA, open records, fishing vs. searching
PENDING: Class discussion Oct. 4: ~~Guest speaker: Jon Solomon~~

Exploratory

Go over the individual storyboard and fill in/edit the missing sections for your story by Oct. 3.
For your topic and your team’s topic, make lists of potential records you might need to explore your questions. Write up a blog post discussing those records and how you might go about retrieving them. Summarize in the individual storyboard linked above Post in the appropriate category using the tag “open records to get” by Oct. 5.