Freedom of Information

George Kennedy – The Missouri Group
Hi, I'm George Kennedy. I'm here this afternoon with Ken Bunting, who has just signed on to the National Freedom of Information Coalition as its Executive Director. So Ken let me begin by asking you to explain to our viewing audience, what is the National Freedom of Information Coalition, anyway?

Ken Bunting – Executive Director, National Freedom of Information Coalition
Okay George I'll try. The NFOIC, which is a easier mouthful than National Freedom of Information Coalition, is a network of state organization that work to foster transparency in government, fight against government secrecy, fight for accountability of government.

George Kennedy
Okay, great and how big a deal is it?

Ken Bunting
Well, I think the issues a big deal, mainly because information is important for a self-governing society; it is crucial, the founding fathers knew that. There are many quotes by Jefferson and Madison that talk about the importance of information to a self-governing people. But in addition to that, it's important because we're in an age of digital communications which many people would like to scare you into thinking we don't need this anymore. That's a myth, that's not true. We do need it because left to their own devices, politicians will cynically hide information from the people who are their constituents.

George Kennedy
So the Coalition and its member organizations are primarily interested in trying to open up the processes of government to the citizens, is that right?

Ken Bunting
The records and the meetings of government should be open to the citizens, yes.

George Kennedy
How many members does the Coalition have?

Ken Bunting
Well we have—I'm not sure if I can even give you a count on the number of individual members we have. We've got 44—no 48, pardon me, member organizations, each of which have scores or hundreds of members of their own. We also have some individuals who are members of the NFOIC, and basically we're operating in all 50 states in one form or another, I mean at some level of vitality or another, but not all as strong as they should be, or we'd like to make them, but working to make sure that the people's right to know is respected by the people who govern them.

George Kennedy
And how do you, that is you yourself, the Coalition and the member organizations, how do you do that?

Ken Bunting
Well, for one thing you've got to familiarize yourself with the state public disclosure and open meeting laws and make sure that the politicians familiarize themselves with those laws and take them seriously, and that's the toughest part. I fielded some calls a few weeks ago from a reporter in Virginia who was being told by several school districts that it would take several hundred thousand dollars to give him a year's worth of outsourcing contracts. He actually got those for $200, not $238,000 because we counseled him on what the Virginia law says about this. So that's one thing, we advise, we educate. We also administer something called the Night FOI Fund. Basically, and it's hard to say this in a time when we live in a litigious society and people refer to law suits as frivolous, but we actually fuel legal actions when politicians don't follow the law. There's a time when newspapers don't have the legal defense funds they used to have. The Night fund is there to give grants to people who need to bring a case because they have gone through the steps of request, appeal, cajoling, and they're not getting the disclosure that the law says they can get. We want them to be able to sue.

George Kennedy
You spent a lot of years as a working journalist, and in fact you were a newspaper editor before you became the executive director here. So let me ask you then how important is freedom of information to the work of journalism?

Ken Bunting
It's huge, it's huge I think in two ways. First, the investigative reporters will tell you they cannot do their job without access to government information, the instruments of government, and access to the people who govern, as well. But in addition to that, I always thought that freedom of information was part of the stewardship duties of a newspaper. I never zeroed out my legal budget partly because I thought the first amendment is there protecting us, and we as an institution owe it to the public to make sure that those freedoms and those privileges don't get eroded.

George Kennedy
Ken that's great. Thank you very much.

Ken Bunting
Thank you.