It's a day that's meant to do a number of things, such as remind us that the right to publish a newspaper unfettered by government restraint is a continuing effort, a right not enjoyed in many countries. Even more important, it is a day that commemorates your right to have such a paper available to read. Only with a free press can you know what your government, your police force and your schools are doing that may or will affect you and your family's well being. A free society must be aware of these obstacles and deal with them if it is to enjoy an accurate and timely flow of information. We live in a time when access to public information is diminishing.
Government agencies find new ways to conceal conflicts of interest and misuse of power.
At the same time, privacy movements are gaining momentum. Some 1,200 new bills on privacy were proposed last year before Congress and various state legislatures, according to a warning by Richard Oppel, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. While newspapers must use caution and common sense to ensure innocent people don't get hurt in the attempt to balance competing interests of privacy and right to know, we need to make absolutely certain the public's right to know remains solid. That right, incidentally, was considered so important that the Founding Fathers guaranteed it in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This is a right we can't afford to lose.