The Society of Professional Journalists’ webinar on censorship and obstruction through media relations offices is up on YouTube.
Among others, it features First Amendment attorney Frank LoMonte, who say the rules prohibiting employees from speaking to the media without permission are a pervasive problem and one that is not legal.
He said many journalists tell him that, with interference from public affairs offices, reporters never get to the front line expert. They get handed off to somebody who is handpicked, “probably somebody who was compliant with the agency’s message and was not a dissenter or a troublemaker or a complainer, somebody who was going to toe the agency’s party line.”
Or they got a canned release, said LoMonte.
He said, “We can say with a high degree of confidence, a slam dunk degree of confidence, that it is not legal for a public agency to maintain a policy that says that employees will suffer some kind of retaliation or reprisal or punishment if they are caught talking to the news media without approval.
“It is just overwhelmingly the case that every federal court that has been asked this question has come down the same way and it has been true for many, many decades.”
The courts have also said, LoMonte stressed, that journalists have the legal standing to bring challenges against these rules.
He said he encouraged news organizations and groups like SPJ to look for what are the most blatantly unconstitutional gag policies out there and, “Let’s find ways to take them on.”
LoMonte also said the Brechner Center, which he heads, will issue a report this summer on the similar rules that silence college athletes.
He said many journalists tell him that, with interference from public affairs offices, reporters never get to the front line expert. They get handed off to somebody who is handpicked, “probably somebody who was compliant with the agency’s message and was not a dissenter or a troublemaker or a complainer, somebody who was going to toe the agency’s party line.”
Or they got a canned release, said LoMonte.
He said, “We can say with a high degree of confidence, a slam dunk degree of confidence, that it is not legal for a public agency to maintain a policy that says that employees will suffer some kind of retaliation or reprisal or punishment if they are caught talking to the news media without approval.
“It is just overwhelmingly the case that every federal court that has been asked this question has come down the same way and it has been true for many, many decades.”
The courts have also said, LoMonte stressed, that journalists have the legal standing to bring challenges against these rules.
He said he encouraged news organizations and groups like SPJ to look for what are the most blatantly unconstitutional gag policies out there and, “Let’s find ways to take them on.”
LoMonte also said the Brechner Center, which he heads, will issue a report this summer on the similar rules that silence college athletes.
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