The TranspareNC Blog
Coalition joins Reporters Committee brief in 4th Circuit court records case
The North Carolina Open Government Coalition is urging a federal appeals court to overturn a lower court ruling that restricts public access to non-confidential court records. In 2012, clerks of court in Virginia launched a program that provides electronic remote access to non-confidential court records and filings in Virginia civil cases. However, remote access is
Public Official Small Groups: Do public servant check-ins violate the Open Meetings Law?
North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law (OML) requires public bodies to conduct their business in public. Public bodies must notify the public of regularly scheduled, special and emergency meetings, must deliberate and vote in public, and must create a record of public business by keeping minutes. When public officials meet in small groups to discuss public
NC General Assembly leadership started automatically deleting legislators’ email. Is that legal under the Public Records Act?
North Carolina legislative leadership has implemented a policy to automatically delete legislators’ emails after three years. This move raises a number of legal and administrative problems for open government in North Carolina.
Court admin plans to stop publishing a criminal case dataset. We’re asking them to keep it open.
The NC Administrative Office of the Courts has decided to retire the ACIS criminal extract, a tool used by journalists and researchers to track trends in criminal justice in North Carolina. We’re asking them to reconsider.
N.C. Appeals Court Strengthens Fair Report Privilege
Note: N.C. Open Government Coalition board member Amanda Martin contributed this post. Martin serves as counsel for the North Carolina Press Association and Supervising Attorney for the First Amendment Law Clinic at Duke University. The N.C. Court of Appeals handed down some very good news for journalists this month. The case arose after the arrest
Open Letter: UNC’s Surveillance of Faculty E-mail
The N.C. Open Government Coalition explains the public records implications of universities’ requests to monitor faculty and staff e-mail and cloud storage.