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DEL.ICIO.USWe knew this place had lost that South Dakota feeling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press has done everyone a favor today by putting into perspective last month’s decision by the state House to bar reporters from the chamber floor.
Georgia joined Kansas this year in adding restrictions, after several years in which few - if any - legislative leaders moved to restrict access, according to the AP report by Greg Bluestein.
In Georgia, House leaders said decorum was the issue. But the restrictions came amidst increasingly critical news coverage of several influential members of the chamber.
Legislative leaders in at least 38 states have restricted reporters from accessing lawmakers on the floors of at least one chamber during a floor session.
Says the AP:
There’s only a handful of legislative chambers where reporters are allowed to walk on the floor and freely speak with lawmakers while they’re in session. They include Nebraska’s one-of-a-kind single-chamber legislature and both chambers of the legislative bodies in Delaware, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota.
Many of the states that do allow journalists on the floor limit them while they’re there.
In Connecticut, reporters are allowed on the Senate floor but can’t pass a brass rail. At the North Carolina statehouse, reporters are barred from speaking with legislators during debate, but they’re restricted to a cordoned-off area on one side of the chamber where lawmakers sometimes come to visit. And in the Missouri House, reporters aren’t allowed to walk along the desks, but they can access a side area and interview legislators there.
Often, the restrictions have led to peculiar tactics. Journalists in Alaska are allowed on the floor of both chambers but they cannot address legislators and can only respond to them, leading to a strange sort of dance as reporters wander around to try to land interviews.
“The vast majority of legislative chambers, movement by anyone is usually controlled,” said Brenda Erickson, a researcher for the National Conference of State Legislatures who has studied the procedures. “It’s not uncommon at all.”
Some states have adopted stricter policies. In the South Carolina Senate, where journalists sit on benches at the back of the chamber, a sergeant of arms will reprimand reporters for nodding at legislators or subtly trying to gain their attention.
Reporters covering the Pennsylvania House have been banned from the floor since 1996, prompting most reporters to monitor the debate through closed-circuit TVs. In a 2001 letter asking legislative leaders to revoke the policy, the press corps lamented: “As a practical matter, there is no longer a House press gallery.”
The Kansas move was announced in a memo distributed to reporters by the speaker’s chief of staff, but it was never voted on. Enforcement has somewhat varied, although doormen have been instructed to ban reporters from accessing lawmakers while in session.
Comments
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By ARBY
April 3, 2007 2:11 PM | Link to this
It is inappropriate for anyone to be on the floor of the House or Senate while the members are in session, but the limitation should end immediately upon adjournment — not 30 minutes later as the House now seems to dictate. Also, members of the media should be allow to request members leave the floor to meet with them.