Annual event is organized to draw attention to people’s right to access information

Corvallis was one of 50 sites around the country that let a little sunshine into the dark recesses of government secrecy Monday morning, when local residents joined in a live satellite broadcast of a forum on the Freedom of Information Act and other issues of information access.

Moderated by Geneva Overholser of the Missouri School of Journalism’s Washington bureau, the panel of speakers included Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive; Thomas Susman, partner in the law firm Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C., which offers counseling, lobbying and litigation in information law and government regulation; and Barbara Petersen, president of the Florida First Amendment Foundation.

Karen Nibler, president of the Corvallis League of Women Voters, hosted the Corvallis screening, held in Owen Hall at Oregon State University. The league, she said, exists to promote open government both locally and nationally.

“If there’s nobody watching, it’s really easy for them to do whatever they want,” she said of government agencies.

The national panel helped observe National Sunshine Week, an annual event organized to draw attention to the right of the public to access information, and to highlight difficulties and obstacles in obtaining that information from public bodies, ranging from local police departments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

What journalists, activists and the general public are facing with more and more frequency is the refusal of government organizations to provide access to records, often on the grounds that the information would risk national security.

“They only ask the first question, ‘Could terrorists use this information?’” said Blanton. “They never ask the second question, which is ‘Could citizens and journalists do something good with this information?’”

While homeland security is often the excuse, Susman said it doesn’t really account for the problem of more and more documents being labeled sensitive or classified. He added that other countries now look at the U.S. Freedom of Information Act as an example of our government ignoring its own laws and subverting the act.

Information is frequently put off limits not because it would breach national security, but because the information contains things that could embarrass public officials, Blanton said. That has been evident in re-classification of certain documents, even those in the Library of Congress, where documents previously open to the public have now been pulled and re-classified as secret. He described such activities as “fetishism,” when agencies re-classify documents that have tenuous connections to homeland security.

“Are we really safer in the dark?” he asked.

As for the fear that releasing too much information will infringe on personal privacy, Barbara Petersen argued that there are checks in place to protect things such as medical information and Social Security numbers.

“It’s very possible to balance interest and privacy,” she said.

Blanton, who said that secrecy is a fundamental tool of government agencies, should be challenged on whose interests are being served.

“There are mixed motives behind our secrecy system,” he said.

The problem is not one that just journalists face. In fact, the largest single set of requesters of public information through the Freedom of Information Act and other laws is U.S. veterans, followed by senior citizens.

The more the public is aware of what documents and information to which they should have access, the more that government officials will be pressured to obey those laws.

“Use it or lose it,” Susman said. “Become familiar with these laws and your rights.”

At a glance

A further discussion on transparency in government and open access to records will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, in the United Way Office, 104 S.W. Second St. This event is hosted by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. Participants are encouraged to bring their own lunches.

Also as part of “Sunshine Week,” the Gazette-Times is inviting readers to participate all this week in its daily Page One meeting. That’s where editors, photographers and reporters decide what stories and photos will be on the front page of the GT.

At each Page One meeting — held Monday through Friday between 3 and 3:30 p.m. — the newspaper staff discusses the local, state, regional, national and international news stories available for the next day’s edition.

If you’d like to join in the discussion, reserve a space by calling the GT’s front desk at 753-2641.

Finally, between 4 and 5:45 p.m. Thursday, the GT’s editorial board will hold its weekly meeting at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. At that meeting you can see how the board decides on the newspaper’s editorials, as well as ask other questions of Publisher Mike McInally, editorial page editor Theresa Novak and managing editor Rob Priewe.