Plopper Assignment: Chapter 6
Optional Middleton Assignment: Ch. 11
No first amendment right to collect information -- except for public's right to attend trials.
Rights have been legislated -- FOIs and Sunshine laws
What is a meeting?
Are cameras and audio allowed?
Notification
Executive sessions
Arkansas FOI -- 5 Ws and an H
Why? Self-governance.
Who? can ask? Any citizen of Arkansas
can be asked? the custodian
What? public records
Where? anywhere (Edmark v. City of Fayetteville)
When? during business hours, immediate or within 3 working days if "in storage or active use."
How? No right to photocopy, "reasonable fee"
Exceptions: personnel, law enforcement, birth certificates
Used to get federal documents. Long wait. Applies only to agency records, not publicly funded bodies..