Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been the subject of criticism recently after it was revealed she used a private email throughout her time as secretary of state.

Clinton held a press conference last Tuesday about her use of a private email throughout the duration of her time as secretary of state, which lasted from January 2009 until February 2013. Clinton said during the press conference that she complied with the law with her use of a private email. The issue has caused some Syracuse University professors to look at issues of privacy and access to information.

Joel Kaplan, associate dean for professional graduate studies at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said looking through a political point of view, “every secretary of state until John Kerry” used a personal email.

“My problem is that government officials and government agencies will do everything to not disclose information,” Kaplan said. “There should be rules by the government that say emails should be available to the public.”

Kaplan said he thinks all of Clinton’s emails should be released, and if anything is held back, there should be an explanation as to why it was not released. If the media or public want to see the information, they should be able to appeal to a court to see it, he said.

“My position is that our Freedom of Information Act is riddled with all sorts of exceptions and loopholes,” Kaplan said. “Instead of attacking (Clinton), the best thing that could happen is to write legislation that makes emails documented and available so the public or journalists can read them.”

Wenliang Du, a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, said Clinton has full control of her server and can do anything she wants to the data on the server.

“If she trusts her own computer better than the State Department’s, then that is her call,” Du said.

Du said the issue is how many of the emails deleted by Clinton were related to business. He said if Clinton used her own server, there is no way to know if she archived anything.

“She may be honest, but who knows?” Du said.

Roy Gutterman, director of the Tully Center for Free Speech, said the legal issue of Clinton using her own server raises questions of archives and information “that is essentially a part of history.”

“If all of these emails were to be kept by the government, the government would decide what would be available based on the Freedom of Information Act,” Gutterman said. “Instead, people from the outside of the scope of accountability are making decisions.”

Gutterman said although many people are looking for information on events like the Benghazi attacks, he “doubts there’s a smoking gun out there on an email.”

According to FOIA.gov, the Freedom of Information Act allows any person the right to obtain access to federal agency records, except records (or portions of them) that are protected from public disclosure by one of nine exemptions or by one of three special law enforcement record exclusions.

“If there is liberal room in the law, the law has to be changed,” Gutterman said.

Members of Clinton’s office made the determination of what was considered business and personal emails. The rest of the emails were deleted by Clinton who said she didn’t see any reason to keep the personal emails, according to a March 10 USA Today article.

While Clinton’s use of a private email makes Gutterman “as skeptical as anyone else,” he said he is “not sure it’s a major crisis” given the fact that two previous secretaries of state have used private emails in the past.

Published on March 17, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Katelyn: kmfaubel@syr.edu