N.J. newspaper does records law checkup
The following is a great example of how a newspaper checked up on changes made five years ago to New Jersey's Open Public Records Act. See the full article in
The Press of Atlantic City. Please note the section of the end of the article noting provisions and response by government agencies.
In summary the article reads:
Ron Miskoff, an associate director of the Journalism Resources Institute at Rutgers University, is no fan of the New Jersey Government Records Council, but he agrees that there's a lot of work to be done.
"It's a difficult culture to change. New Jersey has not had this law
for many, many years, and it's hard for record keepers to start
treating the public as a partner in these documents," Miskoff said.
Miskoff said that changing the government's culture of secrecy can take
time and that one of the biggest agents of change isn't the media or
open-government advocates.
It's you, Miskoff said.
"A lot of the responsibility for implementing this law is going to come down to the public exercising its rights."