Progress wins open records appeal
Public right to information trumps censorship
Issue date: 8/28/08 Section: Perspective
We sent our appeal during the very last week of the semester, and ran an opinion on this page explaining what was going on.
In our appeal we stated specifically, "the university has overstepped its authority in redacting, as a blanket measure, all of the addresses from these reports."
In a reply to our appeal, the university counsel reiterated that the redactions were allowed under a statute in Kentucky law, claimed the Progress had never informed the counsel of its discontent before the appeal-a false and irrelevant claim-and tried to argue that the information contained in the heavily censored reports was "fully adequate to serve the public interest in determining whether the University's Police Department properly carried out its…responsibilities."
During the summer, the office of the Attorney General reviewed the appeal, and ruled in favor of the Progress.
With the exception of a police report involving a juvenile victim and an alleged sex offender-a redaction the Progress supports and agrees with-the Attorney General ruled that "Eastern Kentucky University improperly relied on KRS 61.878(1)(a) in redacting the addresses of persons whose names appeared on incident reports."
The Attorney General also stated it agreed with the Progress' opinion that "addresses can only be redacted on a case-to-case basis, when the address is clearly irrelevant to the media or possibly damaging to an ongoing investigation."
Beyond our specific challenge of redacted addresses, the Attorney General agreed with the Progress' opinion that the university was misusing the statute allowing redactions of personal information and over-censoring its police reports.
To back up its support of the Progress, the Attorney General cited a similar case involving the University of Kentucky and the UK student newspaper.
In that case, the Attorney General stated that the public interest in obtaining open records free of redactions "has been, and will continue to be, treated as superior…absent a particularized showing of a heightened privacy interest."
In our appeal we stated specifically, "the university has overstepped its authority in redacting, as a blanket measure, all of the addresses from these reports."
In a reply to our appeal, the university counsel reiterated that the redactions were allowed under a statute in Kentucky law, claimed the Progress had never informed the counsel of its discontent before the appeal-a false and irrelevant claim-and tried to argue that the information contained in the heavily censored reports was "fully adequate to serve the public interest in determining whether the University's Police Department properly carried out its…responsibilities."
During the summer, the office of the Attorney General reviewed the appeal, and ruled in favor of the Progress.
With the exception of a police report involving a juvenile victim and an alleged sex offender-a redaction the Progress supports and agrees with-the Attorney General ruled that "Eastern Kentucky University improperly relied on KRS 61.878(1)(a) in redacting the addresses of persons whose names appeared on incident reports."
The Attorney General also stated it agreed with the Progress' opinion that "addresses can only be redacted on a case-to-case basis, when the address is clearly irrelevant to the media or possibly damaging to an ongoing investigation."
Beyond our specific challenge of redacted addresses, the Attorney General agreed with the Progress' opinion that the university was misusing the statute allowing redactions of personal information and over-censoring its police reports.
To back up its support of the Progress, the Attorney General cited a similar case involving the University of Kentucky and the UK student newspaper.
In that case, the Attorney General stated that the public interest in obtaining open records free of redactions "has been, and will continue to be, treated as superior…absent a particularized showing of a heightened privacy interest."