Associated Press, State has fared poorly in open access, Tullahoma News, December 3, 2004. Excerpt: 'The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government [TCOG] recently organized and conducted the state's first audit of public record accessibility....Members of TCOG include the Tennessee Press Association, representing print media, and the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, representing electronic media. Other members include The Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, citizen watchdog group Common Cause, and the state's four largest daily newspapers. Dr. Dorothy Bowles, a journalism professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and Kent Flanagan, former Tennessee bureau chief for the AP, co-chaired the project....Increasingly, media sources from across the state have reported instances where citizens have been denied public documents. Unfortunately, if a person is denied a record, the only remedy prescribed by law is to take the matter to court, an expensive proposition that many people will not pursue. This played a large role in Tennessee's low ranking in a 2001 joint study by the Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Better Government Association. The Volunteer State was ranked 45th of 50 states....More than 90 people from around the state were assigned to visit one, and in a few cases, two counties. The government offices had no prior knowledge of the audit. Steps were also taken to send auditors to counties where they were not known. The four documents auditors asked for were basic records that should be available under the state's Public Records Law.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/04/2004 04:00:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
