Full Court Press
UNC-TV has backed itself into a tenuous position that could have devastating impact for journalists across the state – at least the ones who work for a public broadcasting system and, by extension, are considered state employees.
It started when the General Assembly’s Senate Judiciary 2 Committee issued subpoenas to UNC-TV and two of its employees, seeking information and records about a yet-to-be-aired documentary the station produced on Alcoa and its hydroelectric operation on the Yadkin River.
The state’s media shield law would, as the name implies, typically protect journalists from having to disclose such information. In this case, however, UNC-TV Director Tom Howe decided to comply with the legislative request, tacitly agreeing that the folks who work for UNC-TV are state employees first and journalists second.
The Senate Judiciary 2 committee earlier this month got a look at UNC-TV’s records, held a special screening of The Alcoa Story, and received sworn testimony from the reporter who produced the documentary.
Not surprisingly, a few days later Alcoa announced it was filing a freedom of information act request to obtain UNC-TV’s records on the company, arguing that – wait for it – the station’s employees were state employees and subject to open records laws.
The sequence of events has had a chilling effect on other public broadcasting journalists, as WUNC reporter Laura Leslie relates here. Leslie covers state government for WUNC, which is a North Carolina public radio station. The station’s general manager recently reassured staff that they would never find themselves in the same position as UNC-TV.
This from a memo sent to WUNC employees:
You should be aware that it has been our position at WUNC Radio for several years, and this was something I initiated, that we would fight ANY attempt to obtain the reporting records of station journalists, under the North Carolina shield law.
This was carefully vetted with our UNC attorney in terms of the apparent conflict between the shield law and that fact that we are state employees who are subject to open records law. The attorney believes we would probably win a court battle; this is why I spent a lot of time exploring this several years ago, so we could be fairly certain of our standing. (No attorney would ever guarantee you’d win any case of course).
Those conversations occurred when I was News Director. I have been assured this past week that UNC-Chapel Hill remains 100-percent behind WUNC Radio on this.
When I say journalists, that includes of course the news department, but it also includes the staff of The State of Things and The Story.
Here is the text of the law. Seriously, I am ready to go to jail in order to protect the integrity of the journalists at WUNC Radio. (It’s happened elsewhere…..)
That’s a step in the right direction, but UNC-TV hasn’t made the path easy to follow. It’s a dangerous precedent when politicians can start demanding records from any media; it becomes even more dangerous when media complies without a fight.
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