Sunshine Week during a pandemic

When the world is in the midst of a pandemic, it may seem trivial to talk about freedom of information.

It is instead highly relevant to the situation at hand.

People need to know what is happening, how serious the threat is and how that may change in the days, weeks and months ahead as this nation deals with the rapidly spreading coronavirus disease, or COVID-19.

They must be able to trust both the information they’re getting and the sources from which it comes. Lives could depend on how the public responds.

That’s when the freedom of information can factor into the equation, shining a light on government operations and either promoting confidence in the government or encouraging change in the response.

This week the nation again marks “Sunshine Week,” an annual effort to celebrate the freedom of information and highlight the importance of open-records and open-meetings laws and of public access to government decision-making that impacts us all.

Both federal and state “sunshine” laws open up the records and meetings of the government to the people they serve.

In Arkansas, the public interest in the government is protected by the state’s Freedom of Information Act, which was first enacted in 1967.

It has endured numerous amendments in the decades since, some good and some not so good. But it still enables any Arkansas resident to monitor what state and local governmental entities do.

Provisions of the FOI Act specifically extend to all Arkansans and it is frequently used by people other than the press.

As a practical matter, the watchdog role most often falls to newspapers or other media outlets that cover government.

That’s particularly true in the current environment where every responsible news outlet is trying to keep people informed about COVID-19. They’re using every means possible, including FOI laws, to track what different governments are doing and to get that story to the public.

Those reporters will be the ones following up later, too, to hold government officials accountable for how they dealt with this evolving crisis.

Most of the attention has been on the federal response to date, but the states and localities are just as challenged to develop plans and implement them to protect the public health.

Arkansas last week saw its first positive test of a coronavirus patient, a man who had traveled out of state but inside the U.S. He is isolated in the intensive care unit of a Pine Bluff hospital.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson promptly declared a public-health emergency in order to facilitate coordination and provide increased support to state agencies responding to a potential outbreak.

He also restricted out-of-state travel by state employees and encouraged other Arkansans not to travel.

The state Health Department is the lead agency for the state’s response to the virus. That response will need to expand as more people are exposed to the virus.

Clearly, government action is essential not just to provide the necessary medical response but also to calm anxiety over the spread of COVID-19.

Officials must also address the concurrent chaos in the economy and expected disruption in people’s lives.

These are difficult challenges to be sure.

Still, as that responsibility expands, so must oversight of the governments.

Some of that oversight must come from within government. But freedom of information reserves a role, too, for the people and for the press.