Montana Governor Judy Martz (R) and leading state lawmakers recently abandoned a state bill which would have given the government authority to withhold any information from the pubic that it deemed “sensitive.” State Senator Walt McNutt (R-Sidney) stated that Senate Bill 142, which was crafted in order to protect public works from terrorist attacks, is being dropped because the legislation would have created an atmosphere of too much secrecy. The Senator explained that the legislation would have made it possible for agencies to abuse their privilege and withhold a great deal of information. Unfortunately the administration’s reason for dropping the bill did not appear to arise from a commitment to the public’s right-to-know. The Governor’s office explained that she believes “government can work with the news media to ensure that information posing a threat…is not disclosed.” The administration claims one of the factors in dropping the bill is that the Montana news media is demonstrating responsible new methods of determining what information to release to the public, and therefore additional measures are unnecessary. It is vital to the public’s right-to-know that this bill, and numerous others like it around the country, do not see fruition. It is even more important that lawmakers and government officials recognize the importance of open government and make a commitment to protect public access to information, a realization which Martz seems to have fallen short of at this point.