Members back nonpartisan advocacy for sunshine laws

On July 8, 2020, members of the Media Guild of the West, TNG-CWA Local 39213, voted 94% to 6% to approve the following resolution:

Whereas, California courts have held that “access to government records has been deemed a fundamental interest of citizenship”; 

Whereas open access of government records is an essential mode of holding federal, state and local government accountable;

Whereas, the role of journalism is to provide information essential to life in a democracy as well as to serve as a watchdog for government agencies, elected officials, and appointed bureaucrats;

Whereas, residents and news consumers have benefited from the efforts by journalists, public interest groups and local watchdogs to procure public records, often by threatening litigation or suing for records that should be available to the public to inspect;

Whereas media organizations have increasingly limited budgets to pursue litigation against government agencies to force disclosure of public records;

Therefore, be it resolved:

The members of the Media Guild of the West, TNG-CWA Local 39213, support efforts by their local union to engage in advocacy for open-records access, improvements to the California Public Records Act and other transparency laws, and First Amendment issues that affect the work of journalists and serve the public interests of transparency and accountability.