EDITORIAL
By:
A new bill pending in the state Legislature has us worried. If truth be told, you should be worried, too.
The bill, if passed, could have an effect on the way newspapers cover local news throughout the state.
It also could drain a community paper, such as ours, of a large amount of personality and what makes our paper so community-friendly.
Sen. Peter Inverso (D-Mercer) is upset because of what he described as a political party’s misuse of a list of addresses of youth athletes a municipality got a hold of in his county.
This list was used to mail campaign literature to the families of the listed kids. An unfortunate event, but also, an isolated one.
However, Sen. Inverso has created a bill that would make it unlawful for municipalities or groups associated with them, to release the names of people under the age of 18 to the public and the press.
Tom Cafferty, the attorney for the New Jersey Press Association, has warned newspaper groups that information such as box scores for youth athletes, honor roll makers and the winners of scholarships could be a thing of the past if the bill is passed.
John J. O’Brien, the executive director of the New Jersey Press Association, has said the NJPA has been trying to change Sen. Inverso’s mind, to which the senator has suggested an amendment to exempt certain categories of information from the bill.
"When (Sen. Inverso) says the amendment will list certain things that are public or private, it still doesn’t address the crux of the problem that people have misused public information," he said. "This is not acceptable to NJPA. Our position is, they call it public information for a reason."
Ever since the Sept, 11 attacks, Mr. O’Brien said people have become more security and safety oriented. Sometimes, he said, that has been used to "make what’s public, for whatever reason, private."
At one point, Mr. O’Brien said, some members of the state’s Department of Agriculture wanted to keep the location of farms private so that "terrorists wouldn’t poison our food."
"How exactly can you hide a farm?" he asked incredulously.
He also marveled at those who didn’t want to publish bus routes in newspapers because they would provide too much information for "terrorists" and residents with "bad intent."
"This is a great big yellow thing with flashing lights," he said. "What are you going to do? Camouflage the bus and send it out only at night?"
Basically, Mr. O’Brien said making this information private is not the answer. The answer is, politicians and others who misuse the information should be punished.
The trouble with a bill such as this is how far it might be taken. What’s next, one might wonder. And why does the state have to pay for an incident in Sen. Inverso’s home turf? Sen. Inverso seems to be trying to prevent infection by amputating the leg.
Because of policies of public information, we still have the opportunity to provide the means for you to pass a message along to Sen. Inverso to express how you feel about his bill. Call him at (609) 586-1330, fax him at (609) 586-1906 or e-mail him at [email protected].