Florida is one of only a handful of states that has both a constitutional and statutory right of access to the meetings and records of its government. The constitutional right of access applies to all three branches of state government — the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.
All records are presumed open and subject to disclosure unless there is a specific statutory exemption. According to state statutes, “public record” is broadly defined in law as “all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of the physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency.”
Taken from Florida’s Sunshine Laws: Public Records, a self-directed course by Barbara Petersen developed in partnership with the First Amendment Foundation at Poynter NewsU.
