All lawmakers should defend the public’s right to know.

We agree with Richard Griffiths and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation that Senate Bill 215 is well-intended but misguided.

The measure which has passed the Senate and now sits in the House opens a door that would erode access to public records in Georgia.

Any assault on the the Georgia Open Records Act is an assault on the people of Georgia.

The bill is touted as a way to protect the personal, private information of public officials. However, that information is already protected and this proposal just goes too far.

When taken to its logical conclusion, this proposed law could end up meaning the people of Georgia would no longer have access to things like arrest reports, property tax records and voter rolls. And that could just be the beginning.

Furthermore, this measure could mean that nefarious public officials can no longer be held accountable because records of their corruption and clandestine shenanigans would no longer be accessible.

We commend and recommend the guest column in this edition by Richard Griffiths, a president emeritus of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. Griffiths offers commonsense course corrections for this bill.

We strongly urge our legislative delegation to either insist on these simple alterations to SB215 or to just vote no.