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EDITORIAL | Proposed state bills would create a layer of government secrecy

A series of bills was filed in the Arkansas legislature that have the potential to create a layer of government secrecy the likes of which we have not seen since the Freedom of Information Act became law in the mid-1960s.

The bills, filed by Rep. Kim Hammer (R-Benton) would remove publication of public notices from Arkansas newspapers and allow them to be “published” on a government web site operated by the Secretary of State. Proponents of the bill suggest this would result in considerable saving to state government.

The price the general public in Arkansas would pay would far exceed any saving that may or may not result if these bills become law in Arkansas.


The proposed change would move those notices to a government web site to be operated by the Arkansas Secretary of State. No doubt another layer of bureaucracy, another department of state government would be needed to tend to the myriad public notices that would have to be posted.




Public notices have to be credible, they have to be independent, meaning not posted on a government web site, and they have to be achievable. That means that public notices need to be there for all time so that we can prove and verify what government is doing what it is supposed to do and if it is meeting its legal obligation to keep the public informed.



In our view, they still haven’t.

(Tom Larimer is executive director of the Arkansas Press Association.)
