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Alachua County Today has a record of pushing buttons and demanding officials follow their legal duties, and we are sometimes considered the pesky red-headed stepchild of area media outlets. We were recently informed by an area public information officer that of 80 media outlets he deals with, Alachua County Today is the “only one that causes problems.” This may not sound like a gratifying statement, but after recent struggles for public information, we have embraced the label.

Our mentality for justice came screaming back a few weeks ago when one of our reporters hit a roadblock with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. We found out the Sheriff’s Office had offered information to The Gainesville Sun after claiming they could not help us. We had been working for about three weeks on a breaking news story about a woman stealing money from Hawthorne, but a detective at the Sheriff’s Office repeatedly ignored phone calls. We were eventually sent back and forth between the State Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department because both were claiming they had no information on the incident, and the report on the investigation was “not public record.” The report had been complete for about 23 days, but it was lost in what was eventually dubbed “Quality Control” at the Sheriff’s Office.

When we found out the Sun had received the “missing” information from the Sheriff’s Office, we went on the attack to find out why we had been deceived. We called Sheriff Sadie Darnell, we called both public information officers at the Sheriff’s Office, we called officials in Hawthorne and we were in contact with an attorney representing the Florida Press Association. We cracked open our legal books, we heated up the copy machine and we popped open our highlighters. We were determined to get to the root of what we viewed as an injustice and an unethical situation. The Sheriff’s Office informed us that we would have to submit all future public information requests in writing because we were stirring up so much trouble. They told us they could not give us a report on this incident, but after our own investigation, we determined that the Sheriff’s Office was indeed promoting illegal, however unintentional, activities. They have no right to demand we submit any requests through writing, and they were obligated to release certain information to us that they did not offer.

We were not going to stand by as our, and thereby our readers’, rights were violated. While other news publications have allowed such incidents to occur without any further research or knowledge, we pursued truth and justice. We met with Sherriff’s Office officials to further discuss our concerns, and they informed us that they had indeed misunderstood the law. They apologized for their attempt to control the flow of information, and we certainly appreciate being able to inform them about the law so other publications can avoid similar situations.

We have no ill will against the Sheriff’s Office, but we want to be clear that we will not stand by and allow our rights to be trampled upon. By censoring the media, people such as you, our readers, will be left in the dark, and corruption will be allowed to fester. Alachua County Today will fight for our readers, and we will fight to preserve the rights of the media, and in turn, the rights of all citizens.

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