Richmond Times-Dispatch: Governments limit e-mail accessibility
Governments limit e-mail accessibility
States' rules let them decide which ones they will turn over
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/politics/general_assembly.PrintView.-content-articles-RTD-2008-03-17-0072.html
Monday, Mar 17, 2008 - 12:09 AM Updated: 03:15 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
While e-mail and text messaging are hugely popular ways to communicate, governments at all levels are often unwilling to let the public see the e-mails of elected officials.
Officially, e-mails in all but a handful of states are treated like paper documents and subject to Freedom of Information requests. But most of these states have rules allowing them to choose which e-mails to turn over, and most decide on their own when e-mail records are deleted.
Open-records advocates contend that by keeping electronic communications private, states are giving their elected officials an avenue to operate in secret -- they use taxpayer-funded computers to send and receive e-mail but with little or no obligation to make such communications public.
An Associated Press survey -- conducted in conjunction with Sunshine Week, a nationwide effort to draw attention to the public's right to know -- found e-mails for governors in at least seven states are officially exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
But even in the other states, access to e-mail is limited, at best. Public records guardians decide which e-mails they'll turn over and which ones they won't. The requests for e-mails often end up in court or in dispute.
Here are a few of the disputes over public access to these electronic communications:
In New Jersey: Gov. Jon S. Corzine is fighting in court to keep secret his e-mails with ex-girlfriend Carla Katz, who is the leader of a powerful union representing thousands of state workers.
In Michigan: The Detroit Free Press sought access to text messages sent between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty. So far, the city has denied the request, but the paper got 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager from 2002 and 2003 through other measures it hasn't specified that unleashed a sexually charged text-messaging scandal.
In Texas: A Texas district attorney resigned after dozens of pornographic, racist and political e-mails that were on his office computer were released by a federal judge. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal's e-mails included campaign strategy and love notes to his secretary.
In California: San Francisco officials refused to release text messages to and from Mayor Gavin Newsom after a freighter spilled fuel into San Francisco Bay in November.
States' rules let them decide which ones they will turn over
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/politics/general_assembly.PrintView.-content-articles-RTD-2008-03-17-0072.html
Monday, Mar 17, 2008 - 12:09 AM Updated: 03:15 PM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
While e-mail and text messaging are hugely popular ways to communicate, governments at all levels are often unwilling to let the public see the e-mails of elected officials.
Officially, e-mails in all but a handful of states are treated like paper documents and subject to Freedom of Information requests. But most of these states have rules allowing them to choose which e-mails to turn over, and most decide on their own when e-mail records are deleted.
Open-records advocates contend that by keeping electronic communications private, states are giving their elected officials an avenue to operate in secret -- they use taxpayer-funded computers to send and receive e-mail but with little or no obligation to make such communications public.
An Associated Press survey -- conducted in conjunction with Sunshine Week, a nationwide effort to draw attention to the public's right to know -- found e-mails for governors in at least seven states are officially exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
But even in the other states, access to e-mail is limited, at best. Public records guardians decide which e-mails they'll turn over and which ones they won't. The requests for e-mails often end up in court or in dispute.
Here are a few of the disputes over public access to these electronic communications:
In New Jersey: Gov. Jon S. Corzine is fighting in court to keep secret his e-mails with ex-girlfriend Carla Katz, who is the leader of a powerful union representing thousands of state workers.
In Michigan: The Detroit Free Press sought access to text messages sent between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty. So far, the city has denied the request, but the paper got 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager from 2002 and 2003 through other measures it hasn't specified that unleashed a sexually charged text-messaging scandal.
In Texas: A Texas district attorney resigned after dozens of pornographic, racist and political e-mails that were on his office computer were released by a federal judge. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal's e-mails included campaign strategy and love notes to his secretary.
In California: San Francisco officials refused to release text messages to and from Mayor Gavin Newsom after a freighter spilled fuel into San Francisco Bay in November.
