When it comes to transparency, the fox should never guard the henhouse. Yet some lawmakers want to do just that by moving legal notices from independent newspapers onto government websites.

Earlier this year, Georgia considered legislation that would have required public notices to be posted on a state-run website — for an additional fee. That proposal would have duplicated what Georgia newspapers already do for free. Every notice published in The Clayton News-Daily and other local papers is already available online at no cost, and every legal notice in the state — more than 400,000 each year — is searchable at GeorgiaPublicNotice.com .

Legal notices — public records on budgets, bids, foreclosures, zoning changes and other matters — exist to keep citizens informed and empowered. Their

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