Freedom of the Press & COVID-19
Coronavirus Hurts Freedom of Press. Image Courtesy of NY Times.
By now, we see COVID-19 passing in the rearview mirror. Though we might not be out of the woods entirely, things are much different than they were even a few months ago. At the height of the pandemic, there were a lot of government mandates to prevent the spread of the virus. These efforts were an important aspect of government emergency power, but they also imposed limits on journalists and in turn, the freedom of the press.
Although news media was deemed an essential service, reporters and journalists still had to work around local and state ordinances, social distancing, and other barriers to obtaining information. As a result of working from home or "sheltering-in-place" orders, journalists faced issues relating to obtaining information in a timely manner. Open meetings and public records became difficult to navigate. With more and more becoming virtual, there was often little public notice that important meetings, hearings, and court cases would be virtual, postponed, or barred to the public entirely.
The public's right of access to government information is crucial. Perhaps more so in the time of a public health crisis. While journalists were struggling with a slew of barriers, people staying informed was still a prominent goal.
The Reporter's Committee highlights that the origins of democracy are centered around an informed population. Freedom of Information Laws (FOIAs) or sunshine acts legally ensure that government agencies are transparent. These allow journalists to find and disseminate critical information to divulge to the public. The Committee assembled a list of best practices that journalists could use during the pandemic to secure viable information in a time-sensitive manner.
In recent events, COVID-19 elicited concerns that drove a lawsuit against York County Courts on behalf of five news outlets in Pennsylvania. They believed that the courts were impeding constitutional rights and making it difficult to obtain critical non-confidential documents and judicial records.
"The lawsuit cites examples of journalists at the represented news organizations requesting judicial records, only to receive a slim percentage in a timely fashion, with days of delays, heavy redactions or outright denials to the majority of the requests. In many instances, the redactions were not requested by the parties or the court, but rather were imposed by the clerk’s office, in violation of the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions. The media outlets claim this difficulty in obtaining judicial records is caused directly by the policies and practices of the York County Clerk of Courts, and is a consistent pattern throughout many of their ongoing records requests of the clerk’s office." -Gillian Vernick
With this development, there is an increasing need to hold political entities and other bureaucratic agencies to a standard of transparency. Without transparency, they are not serving the public in a way that best reflects American democratic constitutional rights. Specifically the 1st Amendment. These news outlets and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press lawyers are paving the way to hold these institutions accountable. The position of the county clerk is, after all, an elected one. If we cannot keep our elected officials in check, then it poses a risk for deeper abuse of power and corruption. Journalists across the country bring awareness to the public that would not exist if it were not for 1st Amendment Rights and access to information. Government systems that directly impede the distribution of information, especially pertinent to COVID-19 in a time of great social and political distress, must be amended and held accountable.
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