Court grants access to city council tapes in Illinois
An Illinois appellate court said citizens should have the ability to listen to tapes of city council meetings. Duh. Oddly, the city of Collinsville had argued that it didn't have to let a person listen to original audiotapes of city council meetings, saying that they could charge copy costs to copy the tapes. The city claimed that the state public records law did not specify that it had to provide an original public record to requesters, according to a story in the Collinsville Herald. This is typical of some governments, trying to find loopholes in the law by saying the law doesn't specify they have to make information public. But in reality, most freedom of information laws work the other way - the information is public unless there is a law stating otherwise. So don't let a city attorney bamboozle you with semantics and legal twists. Judges see right through it.