ZACHARY: Newspapers protect public interests

Published 9:00 am Saturday, March 7, 2020

Imagine a community without a newspaper. 

Imagine a local government without the local newspaper covering its meetings and keeping an eye on its actions. 

Imagine government spending without journalists watching out for the public purse. 

None of these things are really all that hard to imagine because newspapers across the nation, including Georgia, have shuttered in recent years. And when that happens, also gone is coverage of local schools, sports, nonprofits and all the other vibrant things happening in the community. 

Newspapers serve the public interest in very real and meaningful ways, not the least of which is serving as a public watchdog, both in reporting the news and writing editorials holding the powerful accountable. 

Newspapers also publish important public notices to keep communities informed about what government is doing and how it is spending public monies.  

When a city or county government makes big decisions — especially those decisions that involve raising your taxes or making zoning changes that could affect the value of your property — it is required to place a public notice in the local newspaper. In Georgia, those local community newspapers where public notices can be easily found are called “legal organs.” 

The Georgia General Assembly has defined in state law what it takes to be regarded as a legal organ newspaper. State law requires that the newspaper be located in the county, and if there happens to be more than one newspaper of general circulation in that county, the probate judge, sheriff and clerk of courts can determine the newspaper that is designated legal organ status, where public notices must be placed. 

It is not a perfect system but it is a good system, and state lawmakers designed it to protect the public’s right to know.

Public notices must be public and the only way to make sure the public will be made aware of such things as a property tax increase or a zoning change is by publishing that information where the most people are likely to see it — the local paper.

No one covers a community, especially county and city government and the board of education, like the local paper.

Sure, you can purchase a copy of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal in most Starbucks but no one would ever regard those newspapers as their local community paper, expecting to find coverage of local government or local public notices in them.

Georgia lawmakers should vigorously protect the public’s right to know and resist any efforts to lift the requirement for local governments to publish public notices in the paper, or to make it harder for reporters to gain access to meetings and documents as they shine the light on local government through their coverage. 

You don’t have to like every opinion piece, political cartoon or even the way the newspaper covers something in order to understand its importance to our liberty. 

Newspapers matter, and while it may not be difficult to imagine a newspaper shuttering these days, a community without a newspaper should be unimaginable and unconscionable.

CNHI Deputy National Editor Jim Zachary is the president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation and editor of The Valdosta Daily Times.