The New England First Amendment Coalition called on Mass. Governor-Elect Maura Healey to apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office despite a blanket exemption claimed by the last several administrations.
NEFAC, the Massachusetts Publisher’s Association and the New England Newspaper & Press Association wrote in a Dec. 19 letter to Healey that "as a matter of public policy, there is no reason to give the governor’s office a blanket exemption from the law." [...]
NEFAC’s Tim White, an investigative journalist at WPRI in Providence, explained a recent ruling by the state Attorney General’s Office and how it reflects broader concerns about the Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act.
“The system is broken,” White wrote. “I can say with experience that journalists in Rhode Island are increasingly denied access to public records, and we are faring no better on appeal.” [...]
LOCAL JOURNALISM
NEFAC Training: Defamation and Privacy
NEFAC recently taught a class on libel and invasion of privacy to Connecticut Public and New England News Collaborative journalists.
Our coalition provides workshops and instruction to news organizations throughout the region. We offer a long list of courses for you and your colleagues — and can work with you to develop new classes that meet your newsroom needs.
Email NEFAC Executive Director Justin Silverman at justin@nefac.org to schedule a class for your newsroom.
NEFAC President Gregory V. Sullivan recently met with a group of Iraqi diplomats to discuss the First Amendment and freedom of information laws in the United States.
Sullivan (pictured with Iraqi constitutional law professor Ayat Al-mudhafer) met with the delegation as part of a U.S. Department of State-funded civics program coordinated by WorldBoston, a local non-profit organization. [...]
Our coalition will lead three upcoming classes for the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications. The classes will be online and are free to attend.
The classes are: (1) Common Exceptions to Free Speech (2) The Fundamentals of the First Amendment and Your Right to Know and (3) NEFAC.ORG: A First Amendment and Open Government Toolbox. [...]
With renewed scrutiny of law enforcement agencies across the country, NEFAC is updating its FOI Guide to include legal primers on police misconduct records. Reports for New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont are now available. We discuss how state public record laws address these documents and under what circumstances you can obtain them.
Jill Harmacinski at the Eagle-Tribune in North Andover describes how her newsroom responds to executive session secrecy and shares helpful tips for fellow reporters. These secret meetings are allowed only under certain circumstances and are the focus of NEFAC’s latest round of freedom of information law lessons.
View previous open meeting and public record law lessons in our FOI Guide.
“We have requests pending where the agency has said we need 30 days to do our searching. Lord knows why,” NEFAC President Gregory V. Sullivan said. “I totally do not believe that assertion that 90 or whatever number they said would be resolved with one hour of searching. That’s just not been my experience over the years.”
Sullivan noted that the state Supreme Court has upheld the right of public bodies to charge for the actual cost of copying records, such as expenses for paper and a copying machine; communities generally charge 25 cents to $1 a page. If the legislation becomes law, Sullivan said he would expect a legal challenge to its constitutionality given the state constitution’s requirement that governmental proceedings and records not be unreasonably restricted. [...]
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