April 29, 2021
In a letter submitted to Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts on April 29, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press expressed concern about the governor’s recent decision to bar a local news outlet from attending his press briefings.
Ricketts denied North Omaha Information Support Everyone, or NOISE, access to press briefings because his administration considered the news outlet to be “an advocacy organization funded by liberal donors.” The Reporters Committee’s letter, joined by 12 news organizations and one journalism professor, disputes that characterization, noting that NOISE is a nonprofit news group and part of the Institute for Nonprofit News, which requires that its members “do not advocate or operate in a way that promotes any legislation, policies, government action or outcomes.”
Why bodycam footage is released quickly sometimes and sometimes not at all
• 12 min read
Police shooting of Andrew Brown
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, under state of emergency ahead of the possible release of body camera footage in fatal police shooting of Andrew Brown.Columbus Police Dept. via WSYX/AP
Disparate responses to law enforcement shootings of a Black man and a Black teenager within 24 hours of each other demonstrate the conflicting need for transparency and privacy and the sometimes murky policies at play behind releasing body camera footage to the public.
On the afternoon of April 20, a police officer shot 16-year-old Ma Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio. Within hours of the incident, the Columbus Division of Police publicly released footage from the officer s body camera, with more footage following.
Body-cam footage from police isn t public record in NC. But what about other states? Bailey Aldridge and Simone Jasper, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Apr. 30 Hours after an officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma Khia Bryant on April 20 in Ohio, police released on-the-scene video from the officer s body-worn camera.
The Columbus Police Department was able to share the footage quickly because of a 2019 Ohio law that made such videos public record.
But a far different story has unfolded in North Carolina, where 42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed by sheriff s deputies on April 21.
Under a 2016 law passed by the N.C. General Assembly, footage from cameras worn by law enforcement officers is not considered public record in the state. Police and sheriff s departments do not have the authority to release footage on their own.
CINCINNATI (CN) Assurances from the city of Memphis it has no plans to return to an email listserv to notify media members about press releases and upcoming events were enough to convince the Sixth Circuit a reporter’s First Amendment were properly dismissed by a federal judge.
In a decision released only three days after the case was argued, a three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based appeals court found no reason to reinstate a lawsuit filed by Wendi Thomas, founder and editor of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.
The suit was premised on claims Thomas had been blackballed and removed from the city’s listserv after coverage critical of Mayor Jim Strickland, who had also refused her interview requests.