Anyone interested in accessing files pertaining to Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo. will reportedly have to pay the local government an eyebrow-raising amount of money.
According to Salon, the Associated Press revealed that they were charged a staggering $135 per hour for documents which should be available for free:
It billed The Associated Press $135 an hour — for nearly a day’s work — merely to retrieve a handful of email accounts since the shooting.
That fee compares with an entry-level, hourly salary of $13.90 in the city clerk’s office, and it didn’t include costs to review the emails or release them.
The Associated Press adds that charging absurd prices for certain information is a way that agencies attempt to deter inquiring minds from obtaining it:
Price-gouging for government files is one way that local, state and federal agencies have responded to requests for potentially embarrassing information they may not want released. Open records laws are designed to give the public access to government records at little or no cost, and have historically exposed waste, wrongdoing and corruption.
So much for transparency.
[via Salon and Associated Press]
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