Dallas e-mails regarding city business ruled public even when sent on personal Blackberry
A state district judge ruled that the city of Dallas must release e-mails regarding city business sent from city officials' personal accounts or hand-held devices.
The Dallas Morning News had requested the e-mails in 2005 and had to take the city to court to force the issue. The outcome is that the key to determining whether something is public is not the mode it is recorded, such as a personal Blackberry, but rather the nature of the content. As Harold Cross said in the opening of his 1953 book,
The People's Right to Know: "Public business is the public's business." See
story.