One of the boundaries news organizations throughout Oklahoma have confronted in recent times is holding authorities businesses accountable. As newsroom budgets had been reduce and assets turned extra scarce, it was tougher for news organizations to hunt authorized assist to battle non-compliance with open records and open conferences legal guidelines.
Thankfully, a grant by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has made it simpler for newspapers and different news organizations to pursue authorized recommendation and motion to pressure businesses into compliance.
In 2020, the RCFP employed a Tulsa-based lawyer to supply free authorized assist for Oklahoma journalists and news shops. Since then, Kathryn Gardner, the RCFP’s attorney, has assisted organizations, together with the Muskogee Phoenix, Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier — amongst others — in lawsuits looking for public records. She additionally has consulted journalists, together with these of the News & Eagle, earlier than publishing delicate information and issued dozens of letters reminding authorities officers of their obligation in responding to records requests.
Her efforts not too long ago helped pressure Pottawatomie County Jail produce jail surveillance footage concerning a 2019 demise of an inmate. RCFP assisted Oklahoma Watch in submitting a lawsuit in opposition to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services after the company refused to show over purposes for federal pandemic reduction funds. The company ultimately launched the records.
The RCFP additionally assisted a tribal news group in accessing records from the Osage Nation Treasury Department and is concerned in an ongoing lawsuit in opposition to the governor and attorney normal over emails associated to the U.S. Supreme Court’s determination on McGirt.
Oklahoma has strong and efficient open assembly and open records legal guidelines. However, authorities businesses up to now decade have continued in a tradition of noncompliance.
After some 30 actions have been filed in opposition to these businesses within the final couple of years, hopefully they’re getting the message it will now not be tolerated.
Everyone has a proper to this information. These victories for news organizations are also victories for the public.
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