Northeastern U. creates First Amendment Center

BOSTON—Northeastern University said Friday that it has created a research and advocacy center to increase access to public records, which have become increasingly shielded by government.

The New England First Amendment Center will offer citizens, journalists and public policy organizations information on access to government. The university-based center will have a hotline to advise people seeking public documents and will host seminars for journalists, municipal officials and lawmakers on public records and open meeting laws.

Walter Robinson, Northeastern's coordinator of the center, said the federal government has restricted access to more records since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

State and local officials also routinely turn down requests for information, said Robinson, a former Boston Globe reporter and editor. He recalled one instance when members of the Globe Spotlight investigative team requested records on violent fugitives and a state board said they could have some information, but only if they got a letter of permission from each fugitive.

"Most of the people that reporters and citizens deal with who have the information -- they are not up on the law -- and if people understood the law better, if we had better public education on this, then we would have better compliance," Robinson said.

Stephen Burgard, the director of Northeastern's School of Journalism, said people often have trouble getting access to public records from their local or state government.

"They will go into their town hall or their police department, and not know what the law is about getting public records, and they may be put off," he said.

"We hope a center like this for many people will be place where they can go to learn what the law is and how they can use it," Burgard said.

The center is a joint project of the New England First Amendment Coalition, Northeastern's School of Journalism and its Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

There are about a dozen similar centers housed at colleges and universities around the country, including Vanderbilt University, the University of Missouri, St. Michael's College, in Vermont, and the University of Rhode Island.