Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: Opinion

"There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words."
- Thomas Reid
We applaud Del. Ben Barnes (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's) for sponsoring a bill to revise the Maryland Public Information Act. In the current version of the law, university officials are required to give out students' directory information - including phone numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses - to any party that submits a written request. Some companies have allegedly used this information to engage in predatory lending and phishing schemes.

The bill would protect students' privacy by allowing officials to refuse disclosure of information. It also serves to call attention to the MPIA's imperfections.

The Attorney General's manual for interpreting the MPIA correctly states, "The public's right to information about government activities lies at the heart of a democratic government," but a few of the act's provisions undermine the ability of both concerned individuals and the press corps to access information in a timely manner.

The MPIA allows 30 days for custodians of the law to respond to requests for information. In an increasingly digital society, one where documents are often instantly retrievable and the public's demand for up-to-the-minute news is ever growing, 30 days is excessive.

Also excessive is the leeway given for custodians of the law to grant or deny fee waivers for processing documents. Such fees are often enormous (in one case, Richard Burke, a reporter for the now-defunct Baltimore News American, was billed $50,000) and can deter citizens from accessing public records.

Yet the MPIA gives custodians the discretion to wave fees if the waiver is "in the public interest."

Ah, the public interest: one of the most nebulous terms in American jurisprudence. Funny how such innocuous language can be so dangerous for democracy. Instead of giving a clear standard for citizens to meet and custodians to follow, the MPIA leaves everyone in the lurch.

The ambiguity also makes it harder to challenge waiver denials in court, as judges don't have clear legislative language to interpret and may defer to the authority granted to the custodians.

By writing wishy-washy laws instead of crisp, clear ones, the legislature only adds to the hegemonic creep of the Executive Branch.

This must stop.

State legislators must operate on the MPIA with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel instead of the roughness of a butcher's knife to ensure fair public access to public records.

Policy: The signed letters, columns and cartoon represent only the opinions of the authors. The staff editorial represents the opinion of The Diamondback's editorial board and is the responsibility of the editor in chief.

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