"This public access, and the knowledge gained thereby, serve an important educative interest."

North Dakota Supreme Court in explaining the importance of open court proceedings, Minot Daily News v. Holum, 380 NW2 347 (1986)

"Democracies die behind closed doors. The First Amendment, through a free press, protects the people's right to know that their government acts fairly, accurately and lawfully �"

Federal Judge Damon J. Keith, Detroit Free Press, et al. v. John Ashcroft, et al., 303 F.3rd 710, 202 FED App. 0291P (6th Cir. E.D. Mich. 2002)

Newspapers exist to provide the public with information. Our nation's founding fathers understood this, and that is why we have the First Amendment protecting the freedom of the press. However, this freedom would mean nothing if newspapers � and the public � could not get access to the information.

This is where open meeting and open records laws come into play, and why they are so vital to the media's ability to provide the public with information. Early Dakotans appreciated the concept of the public's right to know and the importance access to public documents play in this right to know even before there was a North Dakota.

North Dakota became the nation's 39th state on Nov. 2, 1889, but in 1872 a law provided for posting and publication of notices of regular and special township meetings (Ch. 51, General Laws of Dakota Territory, 1872). In 1874, county commissioners were directed to publish board proceedings (Ch. 25, General Laws of Dakota Territory, 1874).

Interestingly enough, the state's oldest newspaper was founded at this same time. On July 11, 1873, Col. Clement A. Lounsberry published the first issue of The Bismarck Tribune. I wonder if readers complained because the TV guide was missing.

Closed door sessions were clearly in the minds of 1887 lawmakers who passed a law that city councils "shall sit with open doors and shall keep a journal of their own proceedings" (Ch. 73, Art. 3, section 11, 1887 Laws of the Legislative Assembly of Dakota Territory).

This appreciation and respect of the public's right to know was also evidenced at the initial meeting of the Joint Commission of North and South Dakota representatives meeting in Bismarck on July 16, 1889, to iron out the technical problems of dividing Dakota Territory into two states. At the meeting, North Dakotans successfully resisted a motion to hold Commission meetings behind closed doors. (See, N.D. Constitutional Convention of 1889, Proceedings and Debates 662-66).

The North Dakota Constitution approved by voters just before statehood required open meetings of the Legislature.

Various provisions for open meetings and open records gradually crept into North Dakota law as the state's body of statutes grew, but there was no single statute to cover all meetings or records until 1957 when the Legislature passed two simple, one paragraph laws codified as section 44-04-18 (open records) and section 44-04-19 (open meetings), effective the summer of 1957. These simple and easy to understand laws set North Dakota down the path its citizens clearly wanted by having broad public access.

The laws were deceptively simple and, as would later be seen by developments on the national level, created the "right" presumption for supporters of open government that all public records and public meetings were presumed to be open unless there was a law that said they could be closed. Many other states, and eventually the federal government with its Freedom of Information (FOI) law, took the opposite approach; i.e., that only the records and meetings the legislation listed were open. The difficulty with this approach is that the law can never list all meetings and records.

North Dakotans went even further in their desire for open government, however, by becoming the first state to put these provisions into their Constitution by overwhelming votes of the general public by 78.3 percent in 1975 (open meetings) and 83.5 percent in 1978 (open records).

The basic access laws stayed the same for the next 20 years, but several court decisions and attorney general's decisions began to cause some confusion, so the 1997 Legislature enacted a number of sweeping changes to the law to incorporate these factors. While the revised laws are far cries from the one paragraph 1957 versions, they are essentially still the same insofar as they state that all public meetings and records are presumed to be open unless otherwise provided by law.

This access allows the media to provide the public with the information it so clearly wants and needs to be an informed citizenry. For example, these laws allow the media to tell you who applied for various public positions, so you'll be able to evaluate who was finally selected and who was not, and probably why not. It allows the media to know when public meetings are being held and to let you know what went on even when you can't be there.

Each legislative session brings more demands from governmental entities for more closure. It's a rare bill indeed that provides for more open meetings or open records. North Dakotans today enjoy more access to their government than nearly any other state. It's up to you, the general public, and the media on your behalf, to keep the free flow of information we have today and to preserve this access for all North Dakotans.