Let the Sun Shine In

Free Thursday evening? Come join me at Coastal Carolina University for a rousing discussion of the state's Freedom of Information law. The panel will be full of local notables, both from inside the media world and without. The open records law -- and the too-often struggle to see it enforced -- is one of our favorite topics as an editorial board. Here's where you can learn more about it, including why it's important and where it's going. More info below from the school:

The Department of Communication is hosting a panel discussion on the use and misuse of the South Carolina Freedom of Information law at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 in the Edwards College Recital Hall. The event is part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Panel members will be Dr. Eddie Dyer, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Coastal Carolina University; Jay Bender, the state's leading media attorney and University of South Carolina professor of law and mass communications; John Weaver, former Horry County Administrator and attorney; Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association; Carolyn Murray, executive editor of The Sun News; and Shane Norris, editor of The Chanticleer, CCU's student newspaper and CCU senior.

The panel members each will discuss open records and open access from their unique perspectives - Dyer from the vantage point of public education, Weaver from local government, Bender and Rogers from legal and historic view points, and Murray and Norris from the working journalists' view. The panel will also field questions from Rusty Ray, WBTW morning anchor and CCU adjunct journalism professor, and Lindsay Chavez and Amellia Diemer, station managers for WCCU.com, Coastal's student internet radio station. Moderator will be Trisha O'Connor, Media Executive in Residence at CCU.

South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act was adopted in 1976 and last updated in 2003. It requires government agencies and public officials to disclose public information - such as how tax dollars are spent and decisions involving the public's business are made - to the general public and the press with a few exceptions. The FOIA guarantees all South Carolina citizens the right to attend all government meetings and to have access to public documents and records. Freedom of Information laws are often called "Sunshine Laws' because they allow sunlight to shine on government's actions on behalf of its citizens. 

Panel members will be Dr. Eddie Dyer, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Coastal Carolina University; Jay Bender, the state's leading media attorney and University of South Carolina professor of law and mass communications; John Weaver, former Horry County Administrator and attorney; Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association; Carolyn Murray, executive editor of The Sun News; and Shane Norris, editor of The Chanticleer, CCU's student newspaper and CCU senior.

The panel members each will discuss open records and open access from their unique perspectives - Dyer from the vantage point of public education, Weaver from local government, Bender and Rogers from legal and historic view points, and Murray and Norris from the working journalists' view. The panel will also field questions from Rusty Ray, WBTW morning anchor and CCU adjunct journalism professor, and Lindsay Chavez and Amellia Diemer, station managers for WCCU.com, Coastal's student internet radio station. Moderator will be Trisha O'Connor, Media Executive in Residence at CCU.

South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act was adopted in 1976 and last updated in 2003. It requires government agencies and public officials to disclose public information - such as how tax dollars are spent and decisions involving the public's business are made - to the general public and the press with a few exceptions. The FOIA guarantees all South Carolina citizens the right to attend all government meetings and to have access to public documents and records. Freedom of Information laws are often called "Sunshine Laws' because they allow sunlight to shine on government's actions on behalf of its citizens.