This article originally appeared in the Boston Globe on April 26, 2023 and was written by Edward Fitzpatrick.  

Below is executive director John Marion’s comment on Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s advisory opinon on the handling of Access to Public Records Act (ARPA) requests.

John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said that if the attorney general issued the opinion without being asked, “that’s being proactive about policing bad behavior by public bodies.”

“The attorney general’s opinion clarifies that the government must accept APRA requests by email and can’t require the public to jump through hoops such as submitting records requests by fax machine,” Marion said. “That makes all the sense in the world in 2023 when few, if any, people still use fax machines but email is ubiquitous.”

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