Kentucky's open government laws are fundamental to our newspaper's ability to hold local government accountable. Without them, the citizens of Franklin County would never have known about a culture of sexual harassment at the county jail and the recommendations of an outside law firm, paid with taxpayer dollars, to correct the problem. After the county attorney thumbed his nose at our efforts to shine a light on the matter, we eventually prevailed in Franklin Circuit Court due to a judge who correctly interpreted the law.

This is one example of our near-daily use of sunshine laws in Kentucky. May we never fail to defend them vigorously. The many years of hard work by Jon Fleischaker and others that led to their enactment can be undone in a single legislative session unless we remain vigilant. I deeply appreciate the work of Amye Bensenhaver and the Kentucky Open Government Coalition in advocating tirelessly for transparent government in Kentucky. 

Bio

​Steve Stewart is president of Frankfort Newsmedia LLC, which publishes The State Journal, FRANK. magazine and related digital products. He is also senior vice president of Boone Newspapers Inc., with responsibility for the company’s newspapers in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Minnesota. 

Stewart is a veteran editor and publisher of community newspapers throughout the South. He is a past president of the Virginia Press Association. In 2005, he was selected as the inaugural John Emmerich/Reuters Fellow at the University of Oxford in England. 

Stewart has won numerous writing and editing awards from state press associations, The Associated Press and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.