Finding the right formula for sharing information

As journalists, we are committed above all else to the open exchange of information. We spend a great deal of time working within our community to ensure that Freedom of Information laws are respected and that town and state officials let the taxpayers know how their tax dollars are being spent, and how changes to laws will impact their lives.

As a community newspaper, The Lakeville Journal is committed to letting everyone in the community have a voice — even when that voice is at odds with views held by the paper or when those views are critical of the work we do.

But there are also times when we, as community journalists, feel a responsibility to help people tone down their messages or “edit� themselves before they say something in an interview, a letter or an e-mail that might be libelous or damaging to someone else, or even might be incriminating or have negative repercussions for himself or herself.

A recent example: Cornwall resident Ralph Dzenutis gave several newspaper interviews last month in the aftermath of an after-prom party held at his home that ended with the arrival of the state police, the arrest of Dzenutis and three young people taken to the emergency room at Sharon Hospital because they drank too much.

In the Dzenutis interviews, and in many online comments made by young people on newspaper blogs and other Internet “bulletin boards,� many tidbits of information were shared that could hurt Dzenutis’ case should the lawyers choose to use them in court.

Another case in point is a series of e-mails that have been sent to this newspaper by a group of commenters in reference to the Sharon education budget negotiations. If those e-mails were made public, they would likely have the opposite effect of what the writers intend. It is sometimes difficult to have perspective on a situation when one is in the middle of it. One concern raised in these e-mails is that the public doesn’t fully understand how the teacher contracts work.

This is probably accurate, and in large part due to the fact that when the Board of Education and the teachers’ union negotiate, the press and public are not allowed to sit in. In addition, the representatives of those groups are extremely parsimonious with details after the negotiations are over. However, it is during those contract negotiations that teachers and boards should be eager to share information with the public — not much later, in the middle of a contentious budget season.

Leadership requires many skills. One of those skills is being able to fully and confidently disclose all the details of what a group or committee or commission or board is doing, at the appropriate time. When those details are not shared at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner, it opens the door for information to be released in a way that allows things to be blown out of proportion, misused or negatively interpreted, to the detriment of the process and all involved in it.

Like all civil liberties, freedom of speech and freedom of information are rights that come with responsibilities. Communication is a powerful tool that should be used with the precision of a surgeon’s knife, not swung around blindly in a wide arc as a cudgel.