Journalists learned how to best utilize Pennsylvania’s Right-to Know Law from four well-regarded media law attorneys during Monday’s PNA Foundation Journalism Training Certification Program.
This seventh installment of the yearlong monthly sessions featured Terry Mutchler, chair of the transparency practice for Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel and former executive director for the state Office of Open Records; Joy Ramsingh, public records counsel for the Energy & Policy Institute; Paula Knudsen Burke, Pennsylvania senior supervising attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and Melissa Bevan Melewsky, PNA media law counsel.
The session’s takeaways:
- While there are 30 exemptions to the RTKL, most of them do not apply to financial records and aggregated data. If they do apply to financial records, the law allows for exempted information to be redacted but the rest of the record must be provided.
- Look on agency websites to see if the information you are seeking is already publicly available. If not, consider making an informal request to the press office or RTK officer and avoid the delays that can result when seeking records through the RTKL.
- When filing an RTK request, be specific, and concise, and keep the timeframe short. One attorney advised three months or less.
- Avoid using “relates to” when referring to the requested records because agencies aren’t required to figure out what relates to what. Use the word “reflect,” as in records that “reflect” the information you are seeking.
- Don’t pose questions in RTK requests, always ask for copies of records or the ability to inspect them.
- The more words you put in an RTK request, the more agency lawyers can make it difficult to obtain the records.
- When pursuing records, consider filing record requests with other state, federal or local government agencies that might have the same or related information.
Next month’s training session will focus on navigating press rights in the current legal landscape. For more information, click here.