Editor’s Notes: Press freedom more important than ever
Trending
Organizers of Sunshine Week recently announced the group's third annual Sunshine Fest is tentatively set for about a year from now in Washington, D.C., to coincide with International Right to Know Day on Sept. 28, 2027.
Born in Florida in the wake of government attempts to use Sept. 11, 2001, as an excuse to restrict press freedom, Sunshine Week was a fight back against "data and information that was once readily available ... disappearing at an alarming rate," among other press restrictions, according to Tim Franklin, who was at the time editor of The Orlando Sentinel.
But state and federal government attempts to keep news organizations from shining a light on what they do -- giving the public as much information as possible about the actions of those elected to represent them -- are nothing new.
Those in power have been irritated by reporters asking questions for 250 years.
For the most part, however, the great minds have understood journalists' importance to sustaining this American experiment we're all still working on.
You all know how I feel about the necessity of press freedom, access and adhering to Sunshine Laws. I'm not going to be able to add anything to the conversation.
But these folks might:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (Theodore Roosevelt, 1918)
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." (Thomas Jefferson, 1787)
"Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed -- and no republic can survive." (John F. Kennedy, 1961)
"There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong, and independent press to our continued success in what the Founding Fathers called our 'noble experiment' in self-government." (Ronald Reagan, 1983)
"There is nothing so fretting and vexatious; nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a FREE PRESS." (Samuel Adams, 1768)
"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." (Thomas Jefferson again, 1786)
Yes, it's true Samuel Adams was also the founder of a newspaper in Boston called The Independent Advertiser, but it folded after a year. He later used the pages of the Boston Gazette to poke at the British government for a while.
I'm not talking about freedom of press opinion that is clearly marked as such.
That's important and must be protected, but now I'm talking about the freedom of reporters to do their jobs -- being where our readers can't be, asking the questions our readers can't ask, gathering the information our readers have a harder time finding. Our responsibility is not to "represent" the public, as one incredibly misguided nationally syndicated columnist phrased it. Our responsibility is to report to them as accurately, thoroughly and fairly as possible what is being done by those who DO represent them.
That responsibility is vigorously protected by the First Amendment, as the right of due process is protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth.
Adams wasn't the only Founder who valued a free press. Benjamin Franklin (the New-England Courant and The Pennsylvania Gazette), and Alexander Hamilton (the New-York Evening Post) did, too. I think we all know how the folks in London felt about all three of those men at the time; but also how most Americans think about them today.
Press access, press freedom and strong enforcement of Sunshine Laws are non-negotiable if we want to keep ANY government from operating in the dark.
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com.