McMichael, director of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition and instructor of communications at Elon University, offered perspective on the state of open records laws in North Carolina.
Pate McMichael, director of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition and instructor of communications at Elon University, recently spoke with The Charlotte Observer for an opinion piece titled “As government secrecy rises in NC, use the law that can pry open closed doors.”
The article, written by Ned Barnett, argues that lawmakers have been creating obstacles to disclosing public records and the best way to combat these obstacles is to use public records laws “vigorously.”
“Transparency is fading and government secrecy is increasing,” McMichael told The Charlotte Observer. “We see a lot of government agencies decline (record requests) for reasons that don’t make any sense. It is really a dogfight. People have to either give up or file a lawsuit.”
Read the full article in The Charlotte Observer.