North Carolina Governor Sued By Media Over Emails

Raleigh, NC (AHN) - Several media organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit against Gov. Mike Easley, accusing his administration of routinely violating the state's public records law by deleting official e-mails.

The complaint was filed in Wake County Superior Court by 10 media groups seeking a court order against state employees to prevent them from deleting, destroying, or concealing government e-mails.

The lawsuit is asking the Court to compel North Carolina Cabinet officials to require all personnel to abide with state public records law.

The law states that all e-mails sent to and from government offices are "public records if they contain information related to the transaction of public business" and should be be kept for future reference.

The suit stemmed from a former Dept. of Health and Human Services official's statement that Easley's office follows an unwritten policy to delete e-mails daily. Two other public information officers affirmed the fired worker's claim.

For his part, Gov. Easley said his office receives about 900,000 e-mails a day, and argued that keeping everything would be expensive and time-consuming.

The media groups who sued Gov. Easley include: The Associated Press; The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer; the North Carolina Press Association; The Fayetteville Observer; The Wilson Daily Times; The Alamance News; Freedom Communications and Freedom Eastern North Carolina Communications; Media General Operations Inc.; and The John Locke Foundation.