New York village bats about idea of banning recordings from public meetings
The village of Islandia in New York initially proposed a new law that would ban the recording of public board meetings through use of tape recorders, video cameras and even cell phones. Carl Corry from the Press Club of Long Island (the SPJ chapter for Long Island) alerted me to this outrageous proposal. The law would allow for the equipment to be confiscated by the village and the person to be fined $250. The purpose of the proposed law is to "allow for public participation without intimidation or disruption in public meetings." Fortunately, I just heard that the proposal, which was scheduled to be discussed tonight, was postponed.
The fact a town would consider doing this is simply crazy. In New York, case law has established that people have a right to record meetings as long as they aren't being disruptive. And that's the way it is in at least 42 other states, from what I can tell using the "compare" function in the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press online Open Government Guide. And in those seven states where the right to record public meetings isn't explicit, it is usually allowed.
The bottom line is if the recording isn't disruptive then it should be allowed. Unfortunately, not every agency agrees, the U.S. Supreme Court being the most prominent. While the court is quick to require other agencies to operate openly and with the utmost transparency, the hypocrites on the Supreme Court refuse to allow cameras to record their proceedings. Funny how that works - Congress requires the executive branch to provide records through FOIA but exempted itself from the public records law.
Come on, folks. Secrecy breeds mistrust. Do the public's business in public.