UPDATE, March 9: Utah legislators have delayed the effective date of "the controversial bill that they had passed quickly last week to shield more records from public disclosure and charge more for those that would still be available," writes Lee Davidson of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Gov. Gary Herbert, who had signed the bill, said he was “pleased” by the move: “I’m encouraged they are committed to amending the bill in order to provide for a more thorough and deliberative process,” in a special legislative session to be held this summer. Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asked in a news release, "If the legislation still needs debate, why did the governor sign it?"
Senate President Michael Waddoups "said the move Monday was needed to avoid a veto," Davidson reports. "Earlier, the Senate president said Herbert 'doesn’t like the process that we went through. He feels it was rushed. We all have to grant him that point." (Read more)
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other open-government leaders are urging Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to veto a bill that would “only invite greater government secrecy and back-room dealings,” as Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish put it. In a letter sent to Gov. Herbert today, Dalglish called on the governor to “side with the people of Utah and veto this bill,” which passed the legislature in little more than a day last week.
Dalglish and University of Missouri professor Charles Davis, former freedom-of-information chair for the Society of Professional Jounalists, said the bill would make Utah as the only state to take such draconian provisions against open government. "HB 477 represents the most backward, retrograde legislative proposal to the status of a state's public-records law, a topic I have studied fairly myopically for 20-plus years," Davis wrote. "It puts Utah in a class of one, alone in an anti-democratic zone in which the governors enjoy almost carte blanche over what information they deign to share with the rabble."
The bill would change the state Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) allowing, among other things, text messages and other electronic communication, including correspondence, to be withheld from release. "Unlike every other state in the country, Utah is now embracing the concept that the medium, rather than the message, is what's important when it comes to openness," Davis writes.
Gov. Gary Herbert, who had signed the bill, said he was “pleased” by the move: “I’m encouraged they are committed to amending the bill in order to provide for a more thorough and deliberative process,” in a special legislative session to be held this summer. Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asked in a news release, "If the legislation still needs debate, why did the governor sign it?"
Senate President Michael Waddoups "said the move Monday was needed to avoid a veto," Davidson reports. "Earlier, the Senate president said Herbert 'doesn’t like the process that we went through. He feels it was rushed. We all have to grant him that point." (Read more)
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other open-government leaders are urging Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to veto a bill that would “only invite greater government secrecy and back-room dealings,” as Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish put it. In a letter sent to Gov. Herbert today, Dalglish called on the governor to “side with the people of Utah and veto this bill,” which passed the legislature in little more than a day last week.
Dalglish and University of Missouri professor Charles Davis, former freedom-of-information chair for the Society of Professional Jounalists, said the bill would make Utah as the only state to take such draconian provisions against open government. "HB 477 represents the most backward, retrograde legislative proposal to the status of a state's public-records law, a topic I have studied fairly myopically for 20-plus years," Davis wrote. "It puts Utah in a class of one, alone in an anti-democratic zone in which the governors enjoy almost carte blanche over what information they deign to share with the rabble."
The bill would change the state Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) allowing, among other things, text messages and other electronic communication, including correspondence, to be withheld from release. "Unlike every other state in the country, Utah is now embracing the concept that the medium, rather than the message, is what's important when it comes to openness," Davis writes.
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