On December 15, we celebrate the 229th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights and reaffirm the importance of the Five Freedoms secured by the First Amendment.
During National Newspaper Week, October, 2019, CNHI Deputy National Editor Jim Zachary suggested that a Sixth Freedom is implicit in the First Amendment: The freedom to know, also known as the freedom of information.
For the Valdosta Times, Zachary wrote:
"With just 45 words the founders guaranteed five — no six — basic freedoms, fundamental American rights.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, was ratified to protect freedom, to ensure liberty and to define the Republic.
These fundamental rights of freedom declare what it means to be an American.
As Americans, we are guaranteed:
— The right to freely practice religion
— The right to exercise the freedom of speech
— The right of a free press
— The right to peaceably assemble in protest
— The right to petition the government for a redress of grievances
— And the sixth — implied — right: The right to know, viz. the freedom of information.
It stands to reason that if the press is free to hold government accountable, if all people are free to openly express their opinions about government, to assemble in protest of government and to petition the government for grievances against it, that we also have a fundamental right to always know what government is up to."
The rest of Zachary's article focused on the role of newspapers in advancing the "fundamental right to always know what government is up to.
The Kentucky Open Government Coalition exists because citizen advocacy for the Sixth "Implied" Freedom is critical to preserving the right to know.
Along with newspapers, ordinary Kentuckians have played a substantial role in the development of the body of law that governs the public's rights rights under the open records and meetings laws. Citizens have been on the frontlines of some of the most important legal battles waged in the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General and in the courts.
And when new attacks on the state's open records and meetings laws are leveled by lawmakers purporting "to decide what is good for the public to know and what is not good for them know," citizens' voices from across Kentucky must be heard, along with those of Kentucky's newspapers, in opposing these legislators' efforts.
Two bills threatening the public's right to know have already been pre-filed in the 2021 legislative session. Kentucky's citizens should be prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with Kentucky's newspapers to protect and preserve the Sixth Freedom: The right to know viz. the freedom of information.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/21rs/prefiled/BR960.html
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/21rs/prefiled/BR985.html
