About Half Agency Record Denials Improper, Indiana Ombudsman Finds

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Indiana’s Public Access Counselor says state and local officials wrongly withheld records or blocked public access to meetings in about half of the cases investigated by her office in the past year. A review by the Indianapolis Star of the 219 opinions issued in the past year showed that in 54 per cent of the cases the access counselor supported the citizen-requester. Although its not mandatory, in most instances, the agencies then released the information. (10/12/05)