A bill advancing in the state legislature would enhance transparency requirements for municipal courts and reinforce livestreaming mandates for all criminal courts in Colorado.
A legislative effort to strengthen Colorado’s two-year-old law requiring the livestreaming of criminal court proceedings ended with Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of House Bill 25-1147.
Lawmakers made another unsuccessful attempt to weaken the Colorado Open Records Act during the 2025 state legislative session.
Legislative leaders again discussed providing video coverage of Colorado General Assembly committee meetings, possibly starting with a pilot program.
A bill to require the livestreaming of meetings of state and local boards, councils and commissions “will not go forward” in the 2024 Colorado legislative session because of its high estimated cost, the measure’s sponsor told constituents in a newsletter.
State and local boards, councils and commissions would be required to livestream many of their public meetings and offer remote public testimony under a bill, endorsed by a Colorado legislative committee, that is designed to improve access to government for people with disabilities.
Several key rulings in 2023 showed why courts matter so much for enforcing and interpreting Colorado’s open government laws.
Despite a looming inflationary increase in fees, state lawmakers in the 2023 legislative session never addressed the often-high cost of obtaining public records in Colorado but did vote to eliminate some nagging obstacles for users of the Colorado Open Records Act.
Promising to keep working to improve access to state-and-local government for people with disabilities, a lawmaker requested the defeat of his own bill to mandate the livestreaming of public body meetings and make other changes to help all Coloradans participate in democracy more fully and equally.
There will be no “presumptive” livestreaming of criminal trials and evidentiary hearings in state courts, but judges may allow those proceedings to be broadcast on Webex or another videoconferencing platform after considering several factors, a directive issued by Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Brian Boatright says.
