Ft. Myers News-Press

Florida has some of the country’s best open government laws, but keeping them strong requires tireless vigilance.

This legislative session, certain forces are busy again, trying to shut the door that lets us see what our government is up to.

Florida newspapers are observing today as "Sunshine Sunday," with stories and editorials devoted to keeping government open. It’s the second year we’ve done this, and the drive may have had some impact.

Last year, the Legislature killed almost all the more than 100 exemptions proposed to the state's widely admired open records and open meetings laws. If the campaign worked, it was because of public reaction to the alarms we sounded. If the public isn’t active in defense of open government, all the media clamor on earth won't matter.

Fortunately, the public does care. Voters last year overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds approval in both houses of the Legislature to pass a public records exemption.

Perhaps for these reasons, fewer bills have been filed so far this session compromising your right to know. But the threat has by no means dissipated. Of special concern this year is the raft of so-called "shell bills" filed. These bills simply state the intent to create an exemption to the public records act, but give no details.

Those will be filled in later, perhaps in the hectic late hours of the session, when lots of mischief sneaks onto the statute books.

We should urge our legislators to end the practice of using shell bills for open records exemptions. That would be another way, like the super-majority amendment, to strengthen the public’s grip on its government.

The media can’t do its job for the public unless it has wide access to government. But the same is true of countless individuals, businesses and organizations that track public policy.

The opportunity for groups and individuals to affect policy has boomed with the Internet, taking glorious advantage of its troves of information and ease of communication.

Individuals, lobbyists and pressure groups interested in business, civil rights, religious freedom, the environment, education, boating, hunting, fishing, the rights of crime victims and prison inmates, the welfare of children, workers, immigrants and pets — all have a vital interest in open records and meetings.

Information is the oxygen of citizenship, and we’ll all choke if we don't keep government records and meetings open.

On Monday’s Opinion page, we’ll report on some specific bills that pose a threat to open government.

Use any opportunity to urge our leaders in Tallahassee to keep government open.

Insist that the constitutional public necessity requirement is met whenever an exemption is proposed, and urge legislators to ban the practice of using shell bills to slip open government exemptions in under the radar.