As big a victory as last week's enactment of a new Pennsylvania open records law is for the media, the biggest winner is the public.

The new law ensures greater and easier access to public records, which means the public will be better able to monitor how taxpayer dollars are spent and the public's business is conducted.

When the media acts as a "watchdog" on the public's behalf by investigating allegations of wrongdoing by officials, the new law should help bring problems to light more quickly and more fully.

The new law -- most of which won't take effect until January -- isn't perfect. But it does provide what the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association considers the most important reforms regarding public records.

Most significantly, the new law shifts the underlying legal presumption about public records to where it should have been all along, making government records public records unless one of a number of exemptions apply.

The new law also shifts the burden of proof in disputes to the agency denying access. That means such an agency has to show why records shouldn't be public; previously, those seeking records had to show why they should be public.

The process will be improved, too, through creation of the Office of Open Records, which will oversee requests for records kept by local governments and the state executive branch, handle appeals of such disputes, help bring uniformity to fees charged for copying records and establish a standard form for requesting records.

The new law, known as Senate Bill 1, passed unanimously in both the state House and Senate. Lawmakers worked long and hard to enact this legislation, which was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware County) on March 29, 2007.

Though we frequently are critical of the Legislature -- and for good reason -- this new open records law, which Gov. Ed Rendell signed quickly, is a heartening and refreshing achievement, one that suggests lawmakers, whatever their shortcomings, recognize the fundamental importance of the public's right to know.

We salute all those who helped Senate Bill 1 become law and look forward to its implementation. There still are ways that the Keystone State can improve, but this law is a major turning point, one every Pennsylvanian should be proud of and grateful for.