Keeping Notifications in Newspapers Benefits Public as Well as Journalism

Imagine this scenario: You awake one morning to see huge spaceships hovering over your neighborhood. In your front yard, someone from another planet is holding a clipboard as he gives orders to a demolition crew.

Demolition? Yes — his job is to demolish the Earth to make way for a galactic highway. (This scenario comes from one of my favorite novels, Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”)

Naturally, you protest. What right does he have to demolish your home? But before you can get far, he quickly shuts you down:

“There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now . . . What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout.”

Seem far-fetched? In this country things just don’t happen without due process, without alerting those who will be affected and asking for their input. And for the past 200 years, local newspapers have been the conduit used to alert the public.

But, if House Bill 1312 passes the Indiana Senate, governments, businesses and individuals will no longer be required to use newspapers to alert you about issues that can affect your life.

Instead, they’ll be able to place public notices on a state-run website.

You may not have personally filed a public notice, but it plays a crucial role in due process and our democracy. Public notices ensure that citizens stay informed about government activities. In every state, taxpayers and residents must be legally notified — through newspaper announcements — about the actions of government entities and courts.

In Indiana this could include minutes of government meetings, annexations, delinquent payments, foreclosures, budget approvals and many other vital official matters of government entities.

So how does this work in practice?

Currently, when a government wants to do something such as annex land for a highway, it would contact its local newspaper and contract with it to produce a notice, just as any other advertisement. The newspaper creates the notice, provides proof that it was published and ensures that it ran far enough in advance to satisfy the legal requirement.

To be clear, we get paid for publishing these notices; they provide essential support for our industry. But this isn’t just about the money. I’m writing this column because public notices protect your right to stay informed about your government’s actions.

I believe there is significant power in the printed word. There is finality in having tens of thousands of copies of a notice go out to the community.

Do we really want a system where no independent third party oversees the legal process? Where public notices are confined to a single government website — one that could go down or be inaccessible in areas with limited internet access? Should we trust the government to report on its own activities without oversight?

In a country where due process and public input are vital to the health of democracy, it is crucial that we continue to ask government entities to employ newspapers to administer the public notice process.

Besides — who wants to travel four light years away to check up on things?

If you agree with me, I hope you will contact your local representatives and encourage them to vote “no” on this bill. If you have questions about this or anything else, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Konrad LaPrade is president and CEO of Fort Wayne Newspapers, business agent of The Journal Gazette.