| February 2008 | |
Frontlines
Sheriff to reporter: ‘I’m going to have you arrested’From Alice Echo-News Journal Duval County Sheriff Santiago Barrera Jr. told an Alice Echo-News Journal reporter Jan. 29 he would arrest reporters who “interfered” with his office by writing stories he deemed as negative toward his department. During an interview concerning a recent jail disturbance, Barrera complained
that Alice Newspapers Inc., and in particular Freer Press news editor Sue Fleming “had it out for him.” Alice Newspapers Inc. has written stories in the past year reporting the sheriff’s decision to fire Romeo Ramirez, a task force commander who is running against Barrera for the office of sheriff, and several of Ramirez’s employees, as well as stories reporting the recent arrest of the sheriff’s son for public intoxication and resisting arrest. The sheriff told the reporter, “If you guys keep interfering with my business, I’m going to have you arrested.” When asked for a specific instance in which a reporter had interfered with his
duties as a law enforcement official, Barrera responded “It’s on the front page of the paper every day.” Barrera then restated his comment, saying he would “put in jail” reporters if they continued to “interfere” with him. Publisher Tony Morris said he was disappointed with the sheriff’s statements. “I am disappointed Sheriff Barrera would attempt to use his position to intimidate any member of the media simply because he disagrees with what is being reported,” Morris said. “We have a responsibility to report the news and the public has a right to be informed. We will never shy away from that duty.”
Dallas M-News wins case tied to employees’ birth datesAUSTIN — A Texas appeals court ruled last month that state employees’ birth dates are public and must be released, a decision hailed by open-government advocates, The Dallas Morning News reported. The state comptroller’s office sought to withhold date-of-birth information from The News, citing concerns about possible identity theft. But the 3rd District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling rejecting that argument and said the comptroller hadn’t proved its claim. “The speculative and unproven threat of identity theft is insufficient to exempt date-of-birth information from disclosure,” the court said. The comptroller’s office said it was disappointed by the ruling and was considering an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. “No private sector employer is required to release to the public its employees’ date-of-birth information,” spokesman R.J. DeSilva said, “and we believe government employees should have the same protection.” David Starr, vice president and deputy general counsel of Belo Corp., The News’ parent company, said the outcome is an important open-records victory.
Comal County ups open records feesNEW BRAUNFELS — Comal County made it more expensive for the public to get public records, voting 4-0 to start charging $15 an hour for staff time it takes to fill open records requests after 36 hours of staff time is used, the San Antonio Express-News reported. County Judge Danny Scheel said some requests take hours and hours of staff time to research and collect, and then all the county charges is 10 cents per copy. Worse, sometimes after people are told how much the copies cost, they refuse to pay, he said. “That indicates to me that it’s just a form of harassment of county government,” Scheel said.
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