First Amendment Foundation

Andrea Harper’s presentation last week was very thorough and helpful.
She really took the time to fully explain our rights underneath the Sunshine Laws. From handwritten post-it notes to marriage licenses, there really is a lot of information available to the public in Florida. I thought that it was really interesting to see that public information is available to anyone in Florida, regardless of whether they live here or not, and even if they are not citizens.

Andrea seemed to really be passionate about her career and advocating the right to view public information, it was obvious that she really believes in the Sunshine Law. A great example of Florida’s Sunshine laws effectiveness is that other states contact Andrea at the First Amendment Foundation when they are shaping their public information laws.

I was really interested in the ambiguity of the laws regarding personal computers. I feel that as citizens, we truly do have the right to request to view whatever is on the computer considering that we pay for them with our tax dollars and public officials should really be limiting their use to strictly public business. However, being that this is not always the case the officials are allowed to sift through their computers and not hand over anything containing personal information. I feel that this allows them to really manipulate the information as much as possible because they can in turn regulate what information we receive if it may cast them in a negative light or is incriminating. It seems like we could only retain information like this then, with the help of whistleblowers who are on the inside and have access to such dealings.

I learned a lot from Andrea’s visit and can now appreciate the openness of our system here in Florida. I think it really serves the people and gives journalists here in Florida a really great advantage.