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Georgia lawmakers consider bill that takes aim at the state's journalists
The Guardian
Thu Apr 11, 2019
Category: Media News
Area: Atlanta
In a move slammed by proponents of press freedom, Georgia politicians are considering a law that would create a journalism board to oversee the work of journalists in the state.
The move, introduced by the Republican state legislator Andrew Welch just before he resigned his seat, has generated widespread outrage, though it fits into a pattern of attacks on the media by Republican figures, including Donald Trump.
Some of the suggestions in House Bill 734, the "Ethics in Journalism Act", include recruiting and appointing nine members from media outlets to oversee their fellow journalists to "issue formal advisory opinions" and conduct investigations of complaints - though how complaints are to be submitted and who would be able to submit complaints are not clarified.
Also, anyone interviewed by a journalist could request any photographs, audio and video - at no cost - and it has to be handed over in three business days. The burden of costs would fall on the media outlet. Also, there will be a "civil penalty" of $100 a day for failing to respond within three business days.
Welch said to the Guardian, "I am a firm believer in the first amendment's protection of the free press."
In a written response to the Guardian, he added: "If the board establishes a process for accrediting those journalists in Georgia, then their willingness to be subject to those cannons [sic] is entirely voluntary. The bill does not require accreditation nor does it require any enforcement of the canons of ethics."
He claimed the law would be in line with bodies such as the Society of Professional Journalists. However, that organization, like a number of others, has attacked the proposed law in Georgia. In a written statement, the SPJ denounced the bill as a means "to intimidate journalists and chill the important work of holding powerful people and organizations accountable for their actions".
The SPJ also points out this bill conflicts with the first amendment of the US constitution.
Five other Republican lawmakers have co-sponsored the bill, to see it through the 2020 session as Welch introduced the legislation on the last day of the 2019 session - and then resigned. It is unclear whether it will generate enough support to pass.
Some critics have noted that the Georgia general assembly, which Welch was a part of up until his resignation, is exempt from the state's own Open Records Act.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's James Salzer, who first broke the story, told the Guardian he was stopped by Welch in the hallway of the state legislature, voicing his frustrations about a journalist who he thought was not well-prepared to ask him questions and had not done enough research. He then asked if journalists had a state board similar to ones for lawyers. Salzer said that when the law was introduced later, he knew who was behind the idea. According to Welch, the "assertion is false and silly".
Trump has regularly attacked outlets such as CNN - whose headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia - the New York Times and Washington Post since before his inauguration in 2017, just last week calling the media "the enemy of the people".
Georgia, a Republican-dominated state, seems to be following in Trump's footsteps. Governor Brian Kemp, who was endorsed by Trump in last year's gubernatorial election, and has used the term "fake news" to criticize reporting, has yet to make any public comments about the proposed bill.
A recent poll from Morning Consult shows this messaging among Republicans remains strong, with mainstream media outlets's credibility "[dropping] an average of 5 percentage points over the past three years" in polling mostly driven by Republican respondents. Fox News, however, lost no credibility among Republican respondents in the poll. The New York Times and CNN lost the most credibility, according to the poll.
The former CNN senior vice-president Richard T Griffiths, who is now the president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, said: "I first thought this was an April Fools' joke, but then it became clear it was an effort to rein in those who have been scrutinizing what's been happening at the legislature. In this country, there is a first amendment to the constitution, which reads in part: 'Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or of the press.' This applies even to the Georgia legislature.
"Frankly, this is the kind of proposal one might expect to see surface in a banana republic."
This isn't the first time state lawmakers around the country have played cat-and-mouse games with journalists. In early 2016, a Republican lawmaker introduced a 'journalism registry bill' in South Carolina, only to say he was 'trolling the media', though as the Washington Post pointed out then, it was introduced as a real bill. In Indiana in late 2017, a Republican lawmaker proposed a bill to have state police license journalists.
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