Your Right to Know | Freedom of Information Council

Your Right to Know: Record location fees invite abuses

Apr. 1, 2021

Wisconsin’s open records law, passed in 1981, allows records custodians to charge for the “actual, necessary and direct” cost of making and sending copies, as well as the “actual, necessary and direct” cost of locating them, if this latter charge exceeds $50.

In the latest "Your Right to Know" column, Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders argues it's a practice the Wisconsin state Legislature should consider ending.

Your Right to Know: The ‘Opees’ in the age of COVID-19

Mar. 10, 2021

For the 15th consecutive year, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is presenting its Openness in Government Awards, or Opees. Here are the winners.

Your Right to Know: Wisconsin needs a more open redistricting process

Mar. 5, 2021

Wisconsin lawmakers will soon begin redrawing congressional and state voting boundaries, in accordance with the latest Census.

The last round of redistricting, in 2011, provides a good example of how things shouldn't work, Matthew DeFour, a state politics editor for the Wisconsin State Journal, writes for the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council's most recent "Your Right to Know" column.

Larry Gallup, Your Right to Know, open records

Your Right to Know: Officials’ behavior on masks is reckless and illegal

Feb. 2, 2021

No one in Wisconsin should have to put their lives at risk to attend a public meeting, Larry Gallup writes in the latest "Your Right to Know" column.

Yet to this day, Republican leaders in the Wisconsin state Assembly are holding meetings without requiring attendees to wear masks or offering a video option for those who don’t feel safe attending.

Your Right to Know: Remote meeting access not ideal

Jan. 6, 2021

While livestreaming meetings has become the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, public officials need to do a better job of making sure no one — and no meeting — slips through the technological cracks.

In the most recent installment of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s Your Right to Know column, La Crosse Tribune reporter Olivia Herken offers local lawmakers some suggestions.

Your Right to Know: State must do more to promote openness

Dec. 2, 2020

The state’s openness laws should not be seen as a burden, but as a way for public officials to build trust with the people they represent, writes Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council president Bill Lueders in the council’s most recent Your Right to Know column.

In the column, which is available for publication by WNA members, Lueders discusses a decision by the DOJ’s Office of Open Government that took far too long to issue.

Your Right to Know: DOC should be more open about COVID-19

Nov. 3, 2020

In the latest Your Right to Know column for November 2020, Gretchen Schuldt of the Wisconsin Justice Initiative writes about the Department of Corrections’ lack of transparency over COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin prisons.

The column is available for publication by WNA members.

Your Right to Know: State should name schools with COVID-19 cases

Oct. 9, 2020

The state Department of Health Services has said it finds “no public health value in releasing the names of the school districts with active cases of COVID-19.” Meanwhile, other states across the country are releasing this exact same data in the interest of public health.

In a recent column for the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Coalition, journalist and council member Jonathan Anderson urges state health officials to make the names of all schools with COVID-19 cases public. The column is available for publication by WNA members.

Your Right to Know: Expand online access to government records

Sep. 2, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that many of our jobs can be done digitally and remotely. The same should be true of accessing government records, reporter and radio producer Steven Potter writes.

In the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s most recent “Your Right to Know” column, Potter urges government agencies to serve the public interest by paying attention to the lessons we’ve learned in the past several months.

Let the public see data on COVID-19 and businesses

Aug. 4, 2020

Wisconsin citizens are getting the can handle the truth, Christa Westerberg writes, and they deserve to know the names of businesses and other establishments with COVID-19 outbreaks.