Public notices bill would make government less transparent

On March 24, a bill aimed at stripping public notices from newspapers and taking them out of the public eye was filed in the NC Legislature. House Bill 472, filed by House Majority Leader Skip Stam and three other House members from both parties, applies to all counties and cities.  The bill proposes to eliminate the requirement to publish all manner of public notices in newspapers, at the option of local government.

NCPA strongly opposes the bill, which is bad public policy run amok. We urge every newspaper member to contact their legislators and meet with them in person BEFORE April 22. We ask all members of the NCPA to stand up, together, to oppose this bill.

House Bill 472 not only slams the door closed on openness and leaves every citizen of the state in the dark, it goes a scary step farther: it allows the government to police itself. That was not a good idea all those decades ago when lawmakers passed the laws that require such notices to be made public. And it’s not a good idea now, with a Legislature that otherwise was setting a new and welcome agenda for a more open government for all.

History repeats itself – don’t let government take your rights way. Don’t let them hide their business behind closed doors or on an untrafficked web site.

Public notices need to be where the public notices.

We have said that time and time before and we say it again: taking notices out of newspapers (and newspaper web sites, where papers now run those ads for no charge to the taxpayer!) ultimately hurts the people. It especially deprives the poor and the elderly, who are statistically less likely to have access to computers, much less to broadband.

NCPA is one of the oldest newspaper advocacy organizations in the nation. Founded in 1873, it lobbies for newspapers and open government, provides free right-to-know legal advice and access brochures to newspapers and their readers, offers professional development opportunities for members and administers one of the largest editorial contests in the nation.

Contact: Beth Grace, executive director, North Carolina Press Association, beth@ncpress.com or 919-789-2090; or John Bussian, NCPA legislative liaison and FOI counsel, jbussian@aol.com or 919- 829-4900