Yesterday the Commercial Appeal reported on a bill sponsored by State Senator Mike Faulk, R – Kingsport that would remove the need to publish public notices in newspapers, but rather on government web sites.
Needless to say, some people aren’t that thrilled about the prospect:
“We believe that notices need to stay in print, where they are durable, archivable and easily found by the general public,” Greg Sherrill, director of the Tennessee Press Association.“There’s a reason why legislative bodies in the past have required public notice be given by independent and verifiable means,” said Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government
“To leave it to government to decide when to announce public meetings, for example, is bound to run into controversy because of difficulty in verifying when those announcements were actually posted on a Web site, whether the Web site has been operating since the notice was posted there, and other factors,” Gibson said.
Both Gibson and Sherrill have good points. Leaving it up to government alone is potentially setting the scene for shenanigans, or at the very least, the appearance of shenanigans in the future.
The article notes that the bill will likely be held for further study over the summer.
Newspapers could still publish the notices if they so chose, its not like the reporters would be blocked from the website. The difference would be that municipalities wouldn't have to pay the newspapers to publish the notice.