Does The Public Have The Right To Know?

Should the emails and text messages of State & Government officials be available for public viewing?

I think that any emails and text messages written on Government/State owned computers should be available for public review unless it is classified or sensitive material. If Government officials would like to write emails to their family, friends or mistresses it should be done on their own private phones or computers.

If I am at work using the company computer, my boss can very well monitor my computer use. After all it is his computer and I am working for him. Should it not be the same for the people that work for the state or Government? We paid for the computers they are using and we as citizens are paying their salary..

I am of the thought that what goes on in the Government should be an open book after all these elected officials are in office supposedly doing the peoples work, so why can't the people see the work that they are doing?

Some reading this may think that my opinion is not a conservative point of view. I do realize that most of this issue is spearheaded by Democrats who just want to bring down President Bush and his administration but Democrats will also be subject to having their emails and text messages available for public review. Transparency in Government is needed so that we the citizens can keep an eye on members of both parties..

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- In New Jersey, the governor's e-mails might shed light on whether he inappropriately conferred with a labor leader he once dated. In Detroit, the mayor's text messages revealed a sexually charged scandal. In California, a fight rages for access to e-mails sent by a city councilwoman about a controversial biological laboratory.

Even the White House has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress over its problem-plagued e-mail system.

While e-mail and text messaging has become a hugely popular way to communicate throughout society, governments at all levels are often unwilling to let the public see the e-mails of their elected officials.

Officially, e-mails in all but a handful of states are treated like paper documents and subject to Freedom of Information requests. But most of these states have rules allowing them to choose which e-mails to turn over, and most decide on their own when e-mail records are deleted.

"There seems to be an attitude throughout government - at all levels - that somehow electronic communications are of its own kind and not subject to the laws in the way that print communications are," said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org.

"So we keep hearing reports of governors and mayors who decree that their e-mail records can be destroyed, in six weeks or six months, with no appraisal for permanent value and no review by an independent body," she said.

Open records advocates contend by keeping electronic communications private, states are giving their elected officials an avenue to operate in secret - they use taxpayer-funded computers to send and receive e-mail but with little or no obligation to make such communications public.

"The public needs to realize that is their possibility for accountability and historical review that is being put through the electronic shredder," McDermott said. read more >>>