| Today's Lake Oswego Review takes another look at the "bloggers as media" question that arose when I was excluded from an LO Council Executive Session meeting, essentially for being insufficiently credentialled. Reporter Lee van der Voo--who is a board member of the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and has recused herself from discussions and negotiations with government on this topic--explains the recent events, and then discusses how the proposal put forth by City Attorney David Powell has many in the state media worried: Lake Oswego Mayor Judie Hammerstad said she wants to create a responsible atmosphere for executive sessions in an age where technology has outstripped the fine points of Oregon’s open meetings law. But the city’s efforts to define the media have met with concern from trade organizations, open government advocates and media outlets. Those groups say government should not be allowed to define who is a journalist and what constitutes news. “If government is allowed to certify media representatives, then government therefore is allowed to decertify,” said Judson Randall, president of Open Oregon, an advocacy group promoting open government. Once the authority is aquired, Randall said government can change criteria to make rules increasingly burdensome. Duane Bosworth, a media attorney also on the board of Open Oregon, said any approach to clarify the state law should focus on refining what the Legislature intended when lawmakers approved it. That effort should not overlook the Legislature’s primary goals when it wrote the law, Bosworth said. Those goals were to acknowledge the media as a watchdog and allow journalists to stay current on civic happenings. “Lake Oswego has to value those things,” said Bosworth. He is concerned the resulting local policy instead has a punitive tone and is based on worst-case scenarios that have never played out. He said Lake Oswego has been slow to prove the policy has real benefits and is even necessary at all. “It’s as if they are dictating to the world what a news media must look like and that’s not proper,” said Bosworth. Citing a need for more feedback, the Lake Oswego City Council delayed plans to approve the policy Oct. 7. Instead, officials plan meetings with press advocates and will continue talks.
Van der Voo goes on to quote me a little bit, wherein I immodestly repeat that by any reasonable standard I should be considered a member of the local media. Of course, the issue to the City is not whether I qualify on a productivity basis, but rather on an institutional basis--one that they presume will determine whether their (the Council's) interests are safely protected or not. Accountability is a different issue than establishing who qualifies as media, and to shoehorn them together is in my view a central reason why their initial proposal was flawed. Here's an idea: how about a $500 civil penalty, to be assessed EITHER institutionally or individually against anyone violating the terms of the Exec Session law? If the problem is that bloggers lack an institution behind them that offers a disincentive to violating the terms, why not then apply a similar disincentive to individuals acting independently? I don't think LO has a categorical fear of bloggers per se; to quote Marge Simpson, they simply fear the unknown. A path to accountabilty for anyone appearing at an Exec Session, would seem to solve this problem, no? As van der Voo notes and as we expected, Tuesday's hearing has been postponed in order for LO to confer with the various constituencies and try to come up with something better. We'll keep following the story... |
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