There's more to our Right to Know than simply requiring public officials to do the public's business in public, more than simply re-quiring open meetings and public access and notice of them. And here we go again. These questions have been asked and most of them answered in the years since 1957 when we Pennsylvanians first adopted a Right To Know Law. Or any tv. Ever since local public officials, lawyers and lawmakers and ordinary citizens have been confused about what can and cannot, must or must not, should or should not be shown to any inquiring citizen.
Courts routinely approve sealing the records of settlement in civil suits.
A study conducted by newspapers last year found that records are routinely denied in one out of every three requests even when the records requested are clearly in the public domain. It's clear the Open Records Law in Pennsylvania needs modernizing and clarifying but, in the meantime, what it needs most is to be understood.