Sunshine Week and the erosion of Florida’s open public records laws

Share
sunshine week
Credit: FreePress.net/flickr

We talk about open government in the midst of Sunshine Week. Florida’s Sunshine Law, a series of laws that guarantee public access to government meetings and records, have long been one of the strongest in the country. However over the years the Legislature have been passing a growing number of exemptions to the laws.Over 1100 exemptions exist today, an 250 percent from 1985. Another 43 are being considered in the current legislative session. Rosemary O’hara, the editorial page editor at the Florida Sun Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, talks about the exemptions, long-delays, and exorbitant retrieval fees which often make records inaccessible to journalists and everyday citizens.

Click Here to read an Op-Ed from the Florida Sun Sentinel on Florida’s Sunshine Laws.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Crisis Center of Tampa Bay launches opiod recovery program

The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay’s Transcare Medical Transportation Division...

Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission faces questioning on shipwrecked boats, marine debris

Listen: Wrecked or sunken boats and other marine vessels can...

The Scoop: Thurs. Feb. 13, 2025, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

Roundup of news headlines produced for WMNF Community Radio: Chemtrails...

What About Refugee Resettlement Now?

Gulf Coast JFCS refugee resettlement department discussed the effect of...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Maybe Partying Will Help
Player position: