{"id":136471,"date":"2016-03-16T09:22:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T15:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=136471"},"modified":"2016-03-17T09:41:35","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T15:41:35","slug":"its-time-for-real-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/03\/its-time-for-real-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s time for real transparency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

The message from The Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Board to officials who obstruct the process of truly transparent government is: The party is over.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> \u201cSecrecy is the freedom zealots dream of: no watchman to check the door, no accountant to check the books, no judge to check the law. The secret government has no constitution. The rules it follows are the rules it makes up.\u201d \u2014 Bill Moyers, journalist<\/em><\/p>\n

The word \u201ctransparency\u201d once carried substantial weight in the public debate about how government best functions. Those committed to transparency \u2014 and those committed to fighting for it \u2014 were those committed to a healthy, functioning democracy.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Jeff Proctor<\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps the good old days weren\u2019t so good, but it’s difficult to argue that things have gotten better on the open government front.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparency\u201d has slipped into the cacophony of endlessly uttered political buzzwords, with each new elected official proclaiming his or hers \u201cthe most transparent administration in (fill in the blank) history.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is happening at all levels of government: from the mayor of New Mexico\u2019s largest city to state legislators to this state\u2019s governor to the president of the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparent\u201d is the new \u201cThe buck stops here.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the ground, things are murkier. The word doesn\u2019t mean much anymore. The problem is bipartisan. From those who have stated time and again their commitment to transparency, we have seen a litany of transgressions from both ends of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry settled a lawsuit for withholding public information from journalists and filmed himself signing three controversial vetoes for a YouTube video. (No journalists were allowed in the room to ask questions on behalf of the public.) We have seen Berry\u2019s appointed police chief, Gorden Eden, pull a similar stunt to announce that one of his officers may have violated a homeless man\u2019s civil rights. Again, no journalists were present to question the chief.<\/p>\n

It took a dogged journalist \u2014 a journalist with legal counsel \u2014 to pry loose from Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s administration the names of licensed medical marijuana producers. Further, Martinez is about to stand trial in civil court for allegedly violating a newspaper\u2019s First Amendment rights, not to mention New Mexico\u2019s best known transparency law.<\/p>\n

And a bill passed by the Legislature just last month, then signed by Martinez, that purported to bring more transparency to the state\u2019s campaign finance system made the system \u2026 less transparent. Truly.<\/p>\n

March 13 marked the beginning of Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate successes in open government and to redouble our efforts toward opening the doors that remain closed. Sunshine Week arrives not a moment too soon; for there is not nearly enough sunshine in our state \u2014 despite officials\u2019 optimistic tourism ads featuring idyllic scenery and perfect weather.<\/p>\n

We at the Rio Grande chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists take the occasion of Sunshine Week to announce our own redoubling. In the coming year, we plan to take a more active role in the struggle for transparency. Collectively, we will push to strengthen the Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a> and the Open Meetings Act<\/a>. We will examine how well government agencies are complying with those laws \u2014 and make those findings public. We will speak out when public officials fall short of their rhetoric on transparency. And we will support journalists around the state in their efforts to hold the powerful accountable.<\/p>\n

Individually, we will continue to shine a light in the dark corners of government by publishing stories in the public interest.<\/p>\n

Our chapter recently held elections for board directors. Some of us are old hands. Others are new to the board. We have directors from print, digital, radio and television as well as two journalism professors. Many of us compete against one another for stories. But when it comes to advocating for transparency, we stand very much together. Our strength is our diversity, and our message to officials who obstruct the process of truly transparent government is: The party is over.<\/p>\n

It is easy to see the fight for transparency as journalistic navelgazing: A bunch of reporters complaining that government officials are shutting them out. Nothing could be further from the truth. Journalists work for readers, viewers and listeners \u2014 to inform citizens. When citizens are informed, and when government is open, democracy functions better. We ask all New Mexico citizens to join us in furthering the mission of transparency during Sunshine Week and beyond.<\/p>\n

Jeff Proctor, a New Mexico journalist, is a member of\u00a0The Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’<\/a> Board. He wrote this column on behalf of and with input from the board.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The message from The Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Board to officials who obstruct the process of truly transparent government is: The party is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[139,107,706,116],"class_list":["post-136471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-albuquerque","tag-roundhouse","tag-transparency","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}