Study documents commonplace illegal government policies restricting employee communications with journalists - Entrepreneur Generations

The anonymous whistleblower who kicked off the Ukraine scandal has renewed public debate about the role of such news sources in a democracy and highlighted how government entities often seek to control such leaks. Government agencies throughout the nation have passed broad policies that try to prevent public employees from speaking to journalists without approval, even though federal courts have repeatedly found such policies unconstitutional.

A new report from the University of Florida's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information documents nearly two dozen cases in which courts have struck down policies in local, state and federal government offices that forbid employees from freely communicating with the press.

“There’s widespread ignorance that public-relations offices have no legal authority to forbid public employees from speaking to the news media," Frank D. LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center and lead author of the issue brief, said in a Brechner Center introduction to the report. "Whether it’s called a rule or a policy or a handbook, the result has been the same every time an employee has challenged a requirement to get approval before speaking to journalists: The employee always wins and the agency always loses."

"Policies that have been struck down as unconstitutional include a Michigan fire department’s regulation providing that only the fire chief could 'release facts regarding fire department matters, fires or other emergencies to the news media,' and a Connecticut police agency’s policy forbidding officers from making 'official comments relative to department policy' to members of the press or public without approval," says the introduction.

The report explains where the courts tend to draw the line these days for public employees' free speech and provides strategies and best practices journalists can use when challenging gag rules. 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/361j2Nw Study documents commonplace illegal government policies restricting employee communications with journalists - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet