Sunshine Week

Americans may sometimes forget that freedom of the press is a privilege; one that is granted to us by the first amendment of the constitution. In order to make the best use of this liberty, it is necessary for journalists to gain access to important information that the public may not be aware of. However, the government is now trying to take back the rights that it gave journalists so many years ago.

Journalism in the 21st century can be defined as a systematic means of accessing information with the intention of relaying it back to the public for their best interest, regardless of whether or not it is interpreted that way.

However, Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio Television News Directors Associations, says that the ability to access such information is slowly diminishing. “Public officials are refusing to talk to the press and getting away with it,” Cochran said in her February 2005 column in the Communicator. That is why “Sunshine Week,” a week dedicated to the campaign for freedom of information, is getting underway on March 13.

Debra Gersh Hernandez, coordinator of Sunshine Week, wrote on the program’s website that “open-government is important to everyone, not just to journalists,” which is why numerous newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcast stations will be dedicating an entire week to inform their communities of the dangers in government secrecy of documents. Andy Alexander, the American Society of Newspaper Editors Freedom of Information chair, said on the Sunshine Week website, “An alarming amount of public information is being kept secret from citizens and the problem is increasing by the month. Not only do citizens have a right to know, they have a need to know.”

It is imperative that the government’s attempt to keep important documents secret is thwarted. Raymond J. Lamont, editor of The Westerly Sun said, “The most important general issue concerning journalists today is the increased government secrecy of documents.” Due to such bills as the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, the American government is slowly taking away the people’s right to know what is going on in their own country. By allowing the government to continue keeping documents confidential, we are only giving up our earned rights as American citizens.

For those who believe that allowing journalists to access certain information is a dangerous liberty, consider the words of Jeffersonian lawyer Tunis Wortman in 1801.

In “A Treatise Concerning Political Enquiry and the Liberty of the Press,” Wortman said, “Knowledge is the only guardian which can prevent us from becoming the vassals of tyranny and the dupes of imposture,” What Wortman means here is that freedom of investigation gives us knowledge and by denying its people of that knowledge, the government is only gaining more power. He went on to say that, in reference to his idea that ignorance is the cause of social calamity, “…the only antidote which can be applied, is the progress of information…freedom of investigation is one of the most important rights of a people…”

The role of American journalists in the 21st century, according to Lamont, “Is helping your peers understand what is going on in their own community.” By denying journalists the right to access certain information, the government is allowing ignorance to slowly devour its people, and American democracy as we know it may soon resemble that of a “Big Brother” style-government, such as the one portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984.

As a news reporter for The Good Five Cent Cigar, I am personally affected by this issue.. Journalists around the country are in the process of losing one of their government granted rights, and it is essential that all is done to make sure that right is not revoked.

The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” But today journalists complain that there is not freedom of speech or press, censorship has taken over and the government is holding back valuable information to the public. So if there is no freedom of information why should there be freedom of press?

In the 21^st century journalism should remain the same as it started out to be. Information provided to citizens to allow them to be free and self-governing. For those of you “radicals” that challenge the thought that it may be dangerous to release government information, I say live on the wild side, take a chance, and just roll with it. It could be dangerous to send troops to Iraq and no one is stopping that. People want to know the truth, they need to know the truth, and they deserve to. The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics states, “the public’s right to know of events of public importance and interest is the overriding mission of the mass media.” In my opinion, it is important to the public to release all information regardless of its effects. In The Elements of Journalism, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel state, “Journalism’s first loyalty is to the citizens.”

I feel the role of a journalist is to do whatever it takes regardless of the consequences are, to get the story, get the facts and release them. We need to provide citizens with all the information going on in the world today. Americans have freedom of speech; we should take advantage of it. Some countries, such as, Saudi Arabia, have privately owned media companies, and is one of the most politically closed societies in the world. So go out there March 13^th, support Sunshine Week, because we do not want to end up like them.