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Let sun shine on
government information

THE ISSUE News media in Hawaii and across the country are campaign this week for a more accessible, accountable and open government.

TO the well-informed, President Bush easily won last month's banter with Russian President Vladimir Putin about freedom of the press. Americans know -- but many Russians don't -- that a Russian reporter's suggestion that Bush had something to do with the firing of American journalists, apparently alluding to the CBS shakedown, was hogwash.

"People do get fired in the American press," Bush responded. "They don't get fired by government, however." The reporter had it wrong, and Bush should have realized then the extent to which a vibrant press consists of both freedom to publish and freedom of access to information. His administration obviously is more transparent than the Kremlin but still has fallen short in allowing adequate access expected in America.

Hawaii media join with journalism organizations across the country in "Sunshine Week," a week-long campaign for government openness. The Associated Press and more than 50 news outlets, journalism groups and the American Library Association are spearheading the campaign.

The yearly event is given urgency by the increased government secrecy since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, especially in the areas of homeland security, energy and legal issues. The number of decisions secreting documents has risen from 9 million in 2001 to 16 million last year.

Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced a bill last week that would create a 16-member advisory commission to study ways to speed the release of records under the Freedom of Information Act. A Senate judiciary subcommittee is scheduled Tuesday to hear testimony on the bill.

FOIA requires agencies to allow public access to government information unless it falls under certain exemptions. The agencies can decide on their own to disclose the exempted information.

"The culture in Washington among the bureaucracies is to force somebody to sue you," Cornyn says. "It should be the opposite; there should be a presumption of openness." Cornyn and Leahy also have introduced a bill to speed the release of information sought in FOIA requests.

Supporters of these measures range from the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Heritage Foundation and longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. They understand that access to information is not a liberal or conservative issue but a vital ingredient in democracy.

Activities in Hawaii feature a luncheon speech Wednesday at the East-West Center by Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Dedman of the Boston Globe, a pioneer in computer-assisted journalism. Films and panel discussions are scheduled throughout this week, which also encompasses the fourth anniversary of the Star-Bulletin's independence, instilling economic competition into Honolulu's longtime newspaper rivalry.

President Bush should have come away from the Putin press conference with a better appreciation of the importance of accessible information to a free press. Following the news conference, the Kremlin's Web site displayed a transcript of it, except Bush's remarks were deleted.