These words are etched on the main entrance of the Nebraska State Capitol Building.  “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen.”

Those words are the foundation of our Democracy.  After all our founding fathers understood the importance of an informed electorate by making the First Amendment the First Amendment.  They could have easily buried it somewhere at the bottom of the page or not addressed Freedom of the Press at all.  But they didn’t do that.  Instead, they explicitly made Freedom of the Press one of the five freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution. Ahead of the right to bear arms, the right to privacy, or any of the other rights guaranteed in our Constitution. 

But It’s getting harder and harder for Nebraska citizens to keep an eye on the government as cuts are made in local media outlets, and the ever-expanding media choices water down the impact of many important stories. 

And now the Nebraska Supreme Court has made it even harder for local media outlets to become the watchful eyes. 

The Nebraska Supreme Court recently overruled a lower court’s opinion that said the State could not charge excessive fees when media outlets use the Freedom of Information Act, often referred to as FOIA , to get to the bottom of a story.  

You probably recall the Flatwater Free Press doing stories on the amount of nitrates in the groundwater in rural Nebraska.  Excessive nitrates in the water can cause cancer and other debilitating diseases. It is a real health hazard for Nebraskans who depend on well water.  

The Flatwater Free Press did a FOIA request for any Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy documents that contained the words nitrate, nutrient, or fertilizer.   

Now the law does allow a reasonable fee to be charged to retrieve and release information requested by a FOIA. And initially they were told to honor that request it would cost $2,000.

But they later came back and said that it would cost the Flatwater Free Press $44,103 to have those records.  

The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that a “special service charge” is allowed to cover salaries of the state employees to cover the cost of “ searching, identifying, physically redacting, or copying.” The requested information.  The case was then sent back to the Lancaster County District Court to decide if the $44,103 fee was reasonable under the new “special service charge” guidelines. 

Needless to say, The Nebraska Press Organization and Media of Nebraska, two organizations that support local journalism, along with media outlets like the Flatwater Free Press and others are not too thrilled with this ruling and plan to lobby The Unicameral to codify into law just what should be considered reasonable when it comes to FOIA fees. 

The Salvation of the State is the Watchfullness in the Citizen is getting harder and harder.  When the Flatwater Free Press published a story about the high number of nitrates in the soil around his hog farms Governor Pillen casually dismissed it by saying he hadn’t read it because of the heritage of the author.  The birthplace of any reporter has no bearing on whether or not the story is true.  And if it’s true what does the governor plan to do about it?  The Nebraska Supreme Court made it harder and harder to get to the facts and easier and easier for the state to cover up potential illegal activity or improperly dealing with a problem.

Remember the Governor got elected by refusing to debate any or his opponents.  His people physically blocked me from asking him any questions during the campaign. The voters had a right to know what they were getting besides a shotgun carrying hog farmer that loves his grandkids.  

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.  And when we live in a world where a former President and current Presidential candidate brags about wanting to become a dictator, and his former spokesperson brags about “alternative facts”, and Artificial Intelligence can spread countless lies, it’s not a stretch to think that we could soon live in a country where the very foundation of our freedoms is discarded.  

As we get closer and closer to our upcoming elections, please pay attention to what is actually going on and don’t make the mistake of deciding who to vote for based solely on which candidate has the most money to buy the slickest TV ads.  Support the media that works hard to keep that watchful eye on our government. 

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.