Before voting Monday to advance an overhaul of the state’s open government law, a House subcommittee voted to banish the taking of photographs and video from the hearing.
Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, made the motion, saying that video taken at a prior hearing had been put on the Internet and used to harass a witness.
Willard later identified the witness as Tanya Ditty, state director of Concerned Women for America, who testified in opposition to House Bill 630, which would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals from discrimination in the public workplace.
Ditty said one reason her group opposed HB 630 is that it would extend the same protections to a variety of sexual orientations, including pedophilia and necrophilia.
After the hearing, Wendell said he cherishes the right to free speech and said the Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from any witness, regardless of his or her opinions and positions. But he said he was upset at what happened with Ditty’s testimony going viral on the Internet.
“This seemed to me to be more about intimidating people,” he said. “That’s unacceptable.”
At the hearing, Rep. Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, said those taking videos of witnesses needed to act responsibly. But he said he opposed Willard's motion because it infringed on the freedom of the press.
“We do have a Constitution ... and that kind of interferes with that,” Bruce said of the motion.
But Willard prevailed, and a Capitol police officer was called into the committee room and directed to remove anyone who tried to take a photo during the hearing.
The Judiciary subcommittee later voted to advance House Bill 397, which would increase potential penalties for those who violated the state’s open records and meetings law. Maximum fines for violations would be increased from $500 to $1,000, and a $2,500 fine could be imposed on a repeat offender.
The legislation that was approved Monday did not contain a controversial provision that would have required people to pay potentially costly attorney fees for Open Records Act requests.
A prior version of the bill would have allowed government agencies to charge legal fees for the cost of paying lawyers for their time spent reviewing or redacting information on public documents. That provision could have led to requesters paying hundreds of dollars for such requests.
HB 397 will be considered Tuesday by the full House Judiciary Committee.
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