LDF Activity Report...A Busy Few Months
I've admittedly been slack...until recently...with the LDF Shield blog. But the LDF Committee and Subcommittee members, with the tireless support of our lawyers at Baker Hostetler, have been busy.
During the past few months the LDF Committee has granted two
LDF requests for a total of $3,000.
SPJ also, through the LDF Committee or with the LDF
Committee’s assistance, has signed on to three amicus briefs, lent its names to
comments/letters on three occasions and advised SPJ’s leadership. One LDF grant request was rejected.
As Chair, I fielded several calls and e-mails, invited
applications and chatted with journalists and non-journalists about the LDF. As you
can see from the summaries, October was particularly busy.
On the development side, Julie Kay and I have begun
collecting Silent Auction items. We’ll be ramping up our activity as planning
for the convention in Atlanta
shifts into high gear.
If you have auction items or leads for auction items or want
more information on the summaries of the LDF Committee’s action items, please
contact me: mmcdonough@spj.org.
ACTIVITY REPORT:
In October, a $1,000 grant was awarded to the Salt Lake
Tribune and the Utah Media Coalition to help fund a lawsuit seeking access to
federal Mine Safety and Health Administration Hearings. There was unanimous
support from the LDF Committee.
In October, SPJ agreed to sign on to comments drafted by the
Society of Environmental Journalists. The comments objected to overbroad
regulatory language the Department of the Interior proposed. SPJ along with the
SEJ believed the language threatened to limit photo journalism and audio
recording in national parks. Five members of the LDF Committee voted, one did
not participate.
In October, SPJ agreed to continue to sign on to an amicus brief
objecting to overbroad language in the Child Online Protection Act that could
have a negative impact on journalism. Five members of the LDF Committee voted,
one did not participate.
In October, SPJ agreed to sign on to comments to the federal
Judicial Conference regarding open Internet access to plea agreements. A policy
proposed by the DOJ would limit public Internet access via PACER to plea
agreements in criminal cases to protect cooperating witnesses. The LDF
Committee voiced unanimous support for signing on to the comments, which were
initiated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
In October, SPJ agreed to lend its name to a letter drafted
by the Newspaper Association of America to House of Representatives leadership
advocating for more balanced space allocation for print and other media in the
new Capitol Visitors Center.
After much discussion and participation from the Committee and Subcommittee,
the vote was 5-1 to join the letter. UPDATE: In mid-January, we learned that House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given the print media additional space in the new Capitol Visitors Center.
In November, the full SPJ board voted to extend a $2,000
grant Miami
freelance photographer Carlos Miller. This required full board approval because
Miller had already received a $1,000 grant after his arrest on charges of
disobeying police. UPDATE: Miller’s case continues to drag on and he’s now
without counsel. For whatever reason, his counsel decided not to take the case
all the way to trial and has withdrawn from the case. The LDF Subcommittee and
South Florida Pro Chapter are working with Miller to help him secure counsel.
Miller files regular updates about his case on his blog: Photography is Not a
Crime.
In December, the LDF Committee voted to reject an LDF
request to extend a grant to a Michigan
man who believed his site was being shut down via personal protective order in
retaliation for critical comments he published on his website.
In January, SPJ agreed to sign on to an amicus brief
supporting a recent decision from a lower D.C. federal court holding that
Secret Service visitor logs are "agency records" subject to
FOIA. The amicus is to focus on the importance of Secret Service logs
being subject to FOIA and will also emphasize the broader harm to
accountability and openness if the appellate court sides with the
government.
In January, SPJ agreed to a request from the American
Association of Publishers that it sign on to an amicus brief in Wilson v. McConnell,
challenging the CIA’s redaction of Valerie Plame-Wilson’s memoir Fair Game.
SPJ’s participation is limited to a brief that argues, on broad First Amendment
grounds, that the rationale for censoring Wilson
was undermined when the information became available publicly.
In February, President Clint Brewer asked the LDF and FOI
Committees to weigh in with advice on whether SPJ should opposed a Los Angeles
City Council motion that proposed the creation of a “personal safety zone" to
regulate paparazzi. The Los Angeles Pro Chapter has opposed the motion, which
has since been dubbed the “Britney Bill.” The consensus of the LDF Subcommittee
was that, while there is a concern that journalism could be impacted by such
legislation, it is too soon for SPJ to weigh in.