Next week is the Mississippi Free Press’ fifth birthday and Sunshine Week, an annual initiative focusing on the importance of government transparency. It’s apropos that it falls the same week and follows the decision from the Hinds County Chancery Court that ruled the Mississippi Legislature wasn’t a public body.
This whole thing started in 2022 when investigative reporter Nick Judin, who at the time was covering the Legislature for us, tried to enter the House GOP Caucus meeting and was asked to leave, which led to our team filing a complaint with the Mississippi Ethics Commission. The commission ruled that the caucus, which includes a majority of the current Mississippi House of Representatives and decides on policy behind closed doors, was not a public body and not subject to the Open Meetings Act. Hinds County Chancery Dewayne Thomas has now agreed with that disturbing logic. It should come as no surprise that as a news publisher I disagree, but I’m not a judge. I do not serve on the Mississippi Ethics Commission, so my opinion doesn’t matter much.
My grandmother used to say, “What’s done in the dark will come to light,” and I believe that, but I’m not sure we have time to wait for the natural evolution of events. As I personally see it, the United States is very, very close to losing our democracy. Some would say we’ve lost it. Historically, a lot of politicians and government officials have not been amenable to openness and transparency with the folks that elected them and or the folks they serve. That’s why we have open-meeting laws, also known as “sunshine laws,” which mandate that the bodies that serve us, like county supervisors or water boards, should give advance notice or easily share records of what happened in the meeting
These laws, intended to create transparency, don’t always work as well as intended, from exorbitant fees for staff to copy minutes to antiquated disbursement systems like faxing agendas. It doesn’t help that most community newspapers that covered these meetings have closed or are close to it.
Still, there’s much to be hopeful for in journalism. I’m increasingly frustrated when folks discuss how the free press is dying. I don’t agree. I think it’s being remade. Independent media is quickly filling the gap all over the country. Maybe we can’t go to every city council meeting in a state, but we are doing incredible local and national journalism as we see more and more national outlets shrink or refuse to confront the systems that were not great in the best of times.
Over the last few months, we’ve seen folks from across the U.S. stand up for independent media like ours by curating lists and sharing recommendations when they decide the national daily they usually looked to is not serving them any longer. It’s been incredible to watch and our team has been humbled over and over again by the support and trust from across Mississippi and the nation.
So here’s to Sunshine Week and here’s to our fifth birthday. Thanks for all you’ve done and are doing to support our work. Upward and onward.
