Some North Carolina agencies are throwing up roadblocks to anyone seeking access to the billions of bytes of public information in the state government's vast computer network. In some cases, requests for public information are flatly denied. In others, agencies place restrictions on release of the information or ask extraordinary fees for it. North Carolina's public-records law specifically applies to public information stored in electronic data- bases, just as it does to printed information tucked away in file cabinets.
But some top ranking state officials, wary of releas- ing databases, say the law is inadequate to guard against misuse or inadvertent release of confidential electronic information. Here are where some battle lines have been drawn: *The state Department of Motor Vehicles has a database containing driving records for 6.5 million drivers. Want a copy? It will sell you a copy at $5 per record or $32.5 million for the whole database.
*Since September, the Office of State Personnel has refused to provide the News & Observer a copy of a database containing public information on state employees such as names, positions and salaries. A legal opinion is currently being reviewed and a final decision will be made by Gov. James G. Martin. At the same time, James Lofton, secretary of the state Department of Administration reversed his stance in allowing the News & Observer access to the the department's database.