Once again, it doesn't get more timely than this. The Franklin Circuit Court has ordered the Kentucky Labor Cabinet to pay the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting's legal fees in the Cabinet's appeal of an attorney general's open records decision favoring KyCIR and its right of access to the name of a Cabinet employee charged with sexual harassment--a shocking story in itself.

Quoting Judge Shepherd, KyCIR writes:

The Open Records Act would be "egregiously undermined if a public agency is permitted to haul citizen requestors into court" and make them pay to defend their right to open records, Shepherd wrote.

"The successful party would be effectively penalized for vindicating the public's right to know under the Act, which would turn the policy of the Open Records Act on its head and discourage citizens from exercising their rights to obtain public records."