Sunshine Week: Online no option in MS
Americans can easily learn about their state songs and state flowers with a quick search on the Internet, but most will have a harder time checking whether their children’s school buses are safe or a local gas station is charging too much.
50-state survey of government information accessible online, conducted as part of the annual Sunshine Week campaign, found that while official records are increasingly available on the Internet, some important information is missing.
Mississippi ranks last once again. Mississippi still requires requests for most documents by mail or in person and sometimes requires payment for records.Mississippi has online data from only four of 20 categories examined by the Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information Online. The study, released Sunday, was developed by Sunshine Week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors‘ Freedom of Information Committee, the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Society of Professional Journalists’ FOI Committee.
RELATED:
- Most of Jackson’s mayoral candidates have promised an open and transparent administration, and a few even have concrete ideas on how to accomplish that.
- Commentary: Mississippi can and should do better than rank last among U.S. states for putting government information online.
- Commentary: Let’s say you want to find out if your doctor has been disciplined by the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure. You go online to check the records but can’t find anything.