The freedom to access government information is not an exclusive right of journalists but the right of all citizens.
Sunshine Week at Ball State began Tuesday night with a panel of experienced professionals discussing Americans' rights to know about their government.
Every year, lawmakers try to shut down openness, Dennis Ryerson, editor of The Indianapolis Star, said.
"This isn't just the media's access. This is the public's access," he said. "It is a daily battle to keep this information available to the public."
Junior Laife Janovyak said that public access is of "inexplicable importance" to her, and she feels the issue is too easily ignored.
"The government is supposed to answer to me, and if I don't know what's going on, how can I play my part as a citizen?" she said.
One way citizens can question their right to access of government records is through the office of the public access counselor.
This office was created in 1998 as a part of Indiana's executive branch by Gov. Frank O'Bannon. Karen Davis, the current public access counselor said her job is to train public officials about the Open Door Law and Access to Public Records Act, as well as to address inquiries and complaints from government agencies, the media and the public.
Out of the 3,000 complaints Davis received last year, she said 50 percent were from the public, 37 percent were from government agencies and 13 percent were from the media.
"Sometimes the law can be kind of spotty," Davis said. She encouraged the audience to contact her and use her office as a resource.
Seven out of every 10 Americans are worried about government secrecy, according to a survey conducted this week, said Warren Watson, director of J-IDEAS, an institute at Ball State for high school journalism students that helps with First Amendment awareness.
However, high school students are seriously unaware of the rights that the first amendment guarantees them, Watson said.
He said 75 percent of high school students surveyed thought that flag burning was illegal and that 50 percent thought the government could censor the Internet.
"We're not going to understand openness in government and the first amendment unless we learn it in school," he said.
Janovyak said she was disappointed in the statistics Watson presented about high school students' lack in knowledge.
"How can people live in this country and grow to that age and still not understand those fundamental rights?" she said. "I think its an attitude change that needs to happen on the part of the citizenry."
In part, the role of the media is to help citizens understand the decisions made by lawmakers. However, the gap between the political viewpoints of the news media and the political viewpoints of the public is increasing, Steve Bell, a telecommunications professor and former ABC News White House correspondent, said.
The media view themselves differently than the public views the media, Bell said, and this growing gap is threatening the First Amendment.
"We have to be looking for ways to bridge this gap between media and the public," he said.
Some of this conflict is self-inflicted as the media undermines their own credibility in scandals where reporters make up stories or use unnamed sources, Phil Bremen, a telecommunications professor, said.
Bremen, who was also moderator for the panel, said that 22 reporters received federal subpoenas to reveal their sources in 2004 compared to an average of nine reporters a year from 1991 to 2001.
Congressmen Mike Pence and Richard Lugar have introduced a bill to Congress called the Free Flow of Information Act which will help provide reporters with protection from having to reveal their sources.
Pence said, in recorded remarks, that 31 states have various statues protecting journalists, but there is no federal law.
"Those of use who believe in limited government should be the most vigorous advocates of free press," Pence said in his recorded remarks.
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