ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996              TAG: 9609030060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press 

UVA EX-PRESIDENT TO HEAD GROUP FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT PUBLIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION BACKED

Former University of Virginia President Robert M. O'Neil is the first president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, an organization that promotes easy access to public information.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of librarians, journalists and other open-government activists was established in July and elected its first officers last week.

Forrest M. Landon was appointed as the coalition's executive director. Landon retired as executive editor of The Roanoke Times in October and spearheaded efforts to organize the coalition.

Landon helped raise almost $200,000 in start-up money from nearly 50 sponsoring organizations. The Virginia Press Association and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters each provided $40,000 each. Major gifts also came from The Roanoke Times and The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot, Richmond-based Media General, the Daily Press, The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, WTKR-TV in Norfolk and Chantilly-based America Online.

O'Neil was president of UVa from 1985 to 1990, and is founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, based at the university. He teaches courses on free speech in the computer age and First Amendment courses as a law professor at Virginia.

He was a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, former chairman of the Virginia State Bar's Law-Media Relations Committee in 1992 and author of ``Free Speech: Responsible Communications Under Law.''

``This is a particularly crucial time to protect access - for readers, library patrons, TV viewers, radio listeners, Internet users and the larger community,'' O'Neil said.

Myrtle Barnes, who retired last month as an editor of the Daily Press in Newport News, was elected vice president. Shirley Carter, chairwoman of Norfolk State University's journalism department, is the secretary, and Jenay Tate, editor of The Coalfield Progress in Norton, is the treasurer. Former Gov. Linwood Holton was elected as a director.

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