Let it shine: More access, not less, should be goal
Let it shine: More access, not less, should be goal

The Oklahoman Editorial

Published: March 18, 2008

IT was cloudy as this Sunshine Week began, and we're not just talking about Monday's gray skies and rain.

The pall was cast by last week's Oklahoma Supreme Court decision to make less information available in court documents and to place limits on what can be accessed via computer. The court said it's trying to balance people's privacy with the people's right to know. It's our feeling, one shared by many, that the court went way too far.

The new rules require that beginning June 10, individual pleadings in court cases no longer be available online, and that paperwork filed at courthouses no longer include such personal information as dates of birth, home addresses and Social Security numbers.

Coincidently, the American Society of Newspaper Editors released a survey Sunday showing that three-fourths of American adults consider the federal government as secretive. About half the respondents in the survey, conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University, said they felt state government is open. Forty-four percent considered it secretive. The survey was commissioned by ASNE for Sunshine Week, an annual effort to focus on the importance of open government.

A media expert visiting Oklahoma during the weekend said the rules are a step back for the state, which has invested money and resources to make court records available via the Internet. Mark Horvit, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., pointed out that pleadings from federal court cases can be accessed online ( www.pacer.uscourts.gov), and filings there often contain the same information the state's high court wants to block.

Which means someone could go online and get federal court records about a person in the system, "but that same information won't be available on the state level, even though it's capable of being provided,” Horvit said. "So you have this weird dual system, and what's the reason for that?” Good question.

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