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There is no question that bloggers and citizen journalists should be able to get press credentials. As a former newspaper reporter and editor I know that whenever we were faced with public officials trying to maintain secrecy about public business we never cried "privilege of the press." No, our argument was always that the public has a right to know.

The press has no special privilege, and it never did. Any privilege the press enjoys is derived directly from the right of a free citizenry to participate in its own governance. And the ability of a free citizenry to govern itself is predicated on the availability of relevant information. You cannot make informed decisions if you are not informed.

When our newspapers sought information from police files we found at times that we were given access because we were the press. So we sent a reporter who was not known at the police station to ask for the same access. He was denied. We then raised hell with the city and the police, strenuously making the point that the state's public access law expressly states that these materials are open to anyone, not just the press.

Jason Salzman, who writes an "On The Media" column for the Rocky Mountain News, addresses this issue somewhat, and simply states, "Most bloggers . . . aren't journalists." Now, Salzman himself is not a journalist so it is more than likely that he, too, fails to comprehend the public right to know issue that I'm addressing. However, he does make the good point that bloggers who do intend to function as journalists owe it to their readers to make it clear who they, the bloggers, are. "Who's behind the blog? What's the purpose? Does the blogger have a political bias? Is the blogger trying to practice journalism? If so, what are his or her standards?"

The real issue in the question of credentials is the simple logistical impossibility of granting access to thousands of people wishing to act as reporters. No public official could get any work done if they had to agree to one-on-one interviews with 1,000 reporters. Likewise, there is no way 1,000 reporters could find space in the Capitol Building in Washington or any state capitol. So the question becomes, how do you decide who is to be let in the door?

Basing credentialing on something such as a degree from a journalism school is not acceptable. A news agency may require that in a hiring position but it is not appropriate for a government agency to define a journalist in that manner. The fact is, J schools are

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