Freedom of the Press Day in Maryland is June 28. But what does that mean, exactly?

I don't think about it every day, but it's one of those events you know you're never going to forget because it's never quite far from the surface.

I walked through the glass doors of the old Herald-Mail building, as I did most mornings now that the General Assembly had adjourned from its Annapolis season, still in recovery from late-night reporting on the Maryland primaries about 36 hours before.

The GOP races had been predictable, but there was an upset in the Democratic gubernatorial primary that would have repercussions for me and The Herald-Mail later in the campaign, but that's another conversation altogether.

It was June 28, 2018. And as I followed the maze from the front door to the newsroom, my thoughts were occupied by follow-up election stories and getting on with other matters that had been on the back burner that week.

And so the day went until late afternoon, as work began to wind down a little.

I still remember reading that first anxious text message from a friend at a Baltimore publication. It seemed so incredible at first; I had to read it a couple of times before I could grasp the gravity of it.

Because the notion of an active shooter in a newsroom much like my own couldn't possibly be real.

And yet by nightfall, I was making a list of people to talk to for a story about John McNamara, a former Herald-Mail sportswriter who was one of five members of The Capital's staff who were murdered in their Annapolis newsroom that day.

John was still a sportswriter and an editor for the Capital Gazette company.

Gerald Fischman was a respected editorial writer.

Rob Hiaasen was a seasoned editor, credited by many younger journalists with being their mentor.

Wendi Winters was a Navy mom and a beloved feature writer; she charged the gunman with a trash can to buy her co-workers precious time.

Rebecca Smith wasn't even part of the news staff; she'd recently joined The Capital, working in sales. She was planning to get married.

They walked into their newsroom that morning just as I had walked into mine. But I went home that night. They didn't.

None of them had been involved in the reporting that led to the gunman's longstanding grudge against their news organization. That didn't matter to him.

June 28 is now Freedom of the Press Day in Maryland, the result of legislation approved in 2019 in their memory. For most of us, perhaps, it's another symbolic gesture marking a constitutional guarantee we've always taken for granted.

But while the First Amendment mandates that "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," there are plenty of other ways people, public officials and organizations have found to subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) curb our ability bring you the best, most accurate information.

And that isn't just a problem for us. It's a problem for you.

To understand what I mean by that, it might be helpful to remember why the Founding Fathers gave freedom of speech and the press prime stature in the Bill of Rights: They'd just created a representative government, giving citizens the right to choose the people who made the laws that govern them.

But those voters couldn't all converge on Congress to watch every move to make sure their trust was being respected. They also needed someone to inform them about their government's activities and to hold public officials accountable if that trust was violated, and those informers needed the ability to inform the electorate uninhibited.

It's fundamental — but sometimes lost on the public at large — that sustaining a democracy hinges on an informed electorate. And that is why press freedoms matter to every one of you.

But here's what freedom of the press is not: a license to lie. And there are plenty of organizations out there feeding people half-truths and, sadly, outright falsehoods in the guise of "news." Their patrons eat it up because they're being told what they want to hear, but not necessarily what is true — then they make decisions based on the swill they've been fed.

Nobody should have to explain why that is perilous to our society and to our nation.

So I understand why so many people have come to view journalists with suspicion. And certainly journalism is not a perfect science; we make mistakes, and I've made plenty of them (many of which involved numbers; I'm not a mathematician). But we do our best to correct those mistakes quickly, because it does us no good to have information out there that you can't put your faith in.

We strive to get you the information you need, and to get it right. But sometimes we run into obstacles — whether intentional or unintentional — that hinder the work.

If I were to conduct a seminar for public officials (or anyone else likely to be a newsmaker) about encouraging fair and accurate news coverage, the first and most foundational lesson would be this: Don't make that difficult.

Because when they do, we immediately wonder why. And so should you.

The late Marvin Stone, who edited U.S. News & World Report in its heyday, had a succinct explanation for why many of them stonewall us.

"And they're all the same, whether they're Democrats or Republicans," he told me during an interview in his Washington office. "It's 'we don't want to be embarrassed.' "

I would suggest an addendum to that. In some cases, it's "we don't want to get caught" or "we don't think people would like it."

But the stakes have gotten a lot higher since Marvin's time. And in the six years since our colleagues at The Capital were murdered, it's only gotten worse.

If clothes make the man (or the woman), what are we to make of the way we dress now?

The news industry isn't altogether blameless (see above); some are trying to blur ethical lines in "news" just as politicians are trying to blur ethical lines in politics. That's why it's gotten more and more important for you as consumers of news to monitor the motivations of the sources of your information.

I'm an unashamed old-school journo who still believes in long-established methods of practicing journalism. Those methods were put in place for a reason — and that reason is to give you a modicum of confidence in the information we provide.

I hope as this Freedom of the Press Day approaches you'll remember that our motivation is the best interest of this community.

Even if that means bringing you news you don't necessarily like.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Freedom of the Press Day in Maryland memorializes The Capital victims