When it comes to guaranteeing access to public records, Utah doesn't measure up too well against other states, a study says.
In fact, the Beehive State ranks dead last, with North Dakota, in a 48-state comparison of laws outlining accessibility to public documents.Conducted by an assistant professor and graduate student at Indiana University's School of Journalism, the study gives Utah one point for the state public records law containing "explicit provisions for copying."
But Utah earned a steady string of zeroes in 20 other provisions that tested the strength of its access laws, including five "key provisions" that gauged ease of timely access.
According to the study, published last fall in the Newspaper Research Journal, the stronger the law the more access to records. Wisconsin had the strongest accessibility laws with a score of 15 out of 21, while Utah and North Dakota had the weakest with scores of 1 each.
But even those striving to improve Utah's public records statutes said the study is misleading and doesn't examine all of the state's laws pertaining to public records access. "It's still bad here, but not quite as bad" as the study represents, said Kate Lahey, an attorney for the Utah Headliners chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
She said she believes, based on its conclusions, that the study considered only one Utah statute - the Public and Private Writings Act - and didn't look into other Utah laws that deal with specific state records and their classifications. But it's not uncommon for public records statute surveys to make that oversight, Lahey said, when Utah public records laws are scattered throughout the multivolume Utah Code.
Because of the confusion reigning over the state's public access laws, the Legislature has appointed a committee of lawmakers, state bureaucrats, businesspeople, attorneys, journalists and citizens who are now in their second year of trying to make sense of the mess and come up with legislation that will clearly define the public access to government documents.
Lahey said it's a sensitive issue with opinions "all over the map." While many citizens and legislators are concerned with privacy, they also realize the value of an open democracy. Journalists, obviously, thrive on easy access to government documents, but Lahey said that access is also important to average citizens.
Why Utah's public records laws are confusing and weak, as the study suggests, is anyone's guess.
According to the study, Utah has a moralistic political culture, which theoretically should be open, encouraging public participation and accountability of government.
But for researchers at Indiana University, such a connection didn't surface in Utah or in the other states classified as having a moralistic political culture. "The influence of political culture apparently does not extend to tools of participation and accountability such as public records laws," the study said.
"It may be that some states with moralistic political culture have relatively weak public records laws either because there has been no great demand for government information in those states or because access to such information is freely granted."
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(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Strongest and weakest in accessibility laws
- Strongest - Wisconsin, with a score of 15 out of 21 in the study.
- Weakest - Utah and North Dakota, with scores of one each in the study.