State’s high court rules for daily in ‘headline’ case

AUSTIN — The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of The Brownsville Herald in a defamation lawsuit filed by Conrado Cantu, a candidate for sheriff in the 2000 election who claimed the newspaper defamed him in a front-page article and headline.

In its article, the Herald reported that Cantu claimed during a campaign debate to be the better candidate because he is Hispanic, as is a majority of Brownsville. Cantu sued the newspaper, denying that he had made the claim and charging that he had been misunderstood.

John Bussian, First Amendment attorney and chair of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association First Amendment Committee, argued the case for the Herald before the Texas Supreme Court. SNPA filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case in November 2004. The brief was made possible by legal work donated to SNPA by the E.W. Scripps Co.

Bussian said that the decision’s impact will be felt far beyond the confines of this litigation. For the first time in memory, a state supreme court ruled on a “headline” case. The Texas high court adopted the so-called “rational interpretation” test for measuring whether a headline that summarizes a politician’s public comments can be the basis for a libel suit against the press, a more stringent standard than previously used.

The seven justices who cast votes in the Herald’s favor endorsed uncontroverted newsroom testimony that no one at the paper acted with actual malice as sufficient to have a public official libel suit dismissed before trial in Texas state courts, and rejected the sheriff’s use of “expert” journalist testimony in a trial judge’s assessment of publishing motive. Collectively, these features of the decision will make it significantly harder for both Texas plaintiffs and plaintiffs in other states to get headline-based libel cases to juries.

SNPA also has joined The New York Times, The Tribune Company and Florida Freedom Newspapers in a friend-of-the-court brief in a case in Florida. The issue concerns a proposed Florida Supreme Court rule that would restrict access to electronic records of Florida State Courts. A decision is pending in that case.

Galveston daily sues state land office

GALVESTON — The Galveston County Daily News has gone to court to try to get more information on the state power program through which the Texas General Land Office trades natural gas from public land to Reliant Energy for electricity sold to customers such as schools, cities and counties.

The newspaper’s lawsuit against the General Land Office accuses the agency of providing inadequate or no answers in response to months of requests for the information.

Land Office spokesman Jim Suydam said the agency has complied with the Texas Public Information Act and provided the paper everything it sought in nearly two dozen requests since September.

City, media agree on police scanners

WICHITA FALLS — An agreement has been reached between news organizations and the city of Wichita Falls that will allow access to scanner communications again.

The scanners had fallen silent more than a month ago when a new 800-Mhz digital radio system went into use.

City officials had argued that the safety of officers was at risk if the public knew where police were going.

Media outlets had threatened to sue for access. The agreement calls for the Wichita Falls Times Record News and television stations KFDX and KAUZ to each be allowed to buy as many as two digital radios programmed to monitor the police department’s primary traffic channel and dispatching information from the fire department.

Carroll Wilson, editor of the Times Record News, said “It’s particularly extraordinary that the two TV stations and the newspaper were all able to put competitive impulses aside and work as one to negotiate with the Police Department and city officials to come up with this contract.”

Abilene skirts meetings law with closed sessions

ABILENE — City elected officials violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by meeting behind closed doors with Cracker Barrel officials, a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas told the Abilene Reporter News.

But the city’s attorney disagrees. In two back-to-back meetings, Mayor Norm Archibald and some city council members met with Cracker Barrel Old Country Store officials, but neither meeting constituted a quorum.

Two city council members attended each of the meetings, and Archibald attended both for a total of three city officials at each meeting. The restaurant’s representatives were in town to convince the city they needed a taller pole sign than ordinances allow for their planned store on Interstate 20

DA probes hospital board again on act

CONROE — The Montgomery County District Attorney’s office is investigating complaints that four members of the county hospital board violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The complaints allege that the foursome, members of an executive search committee charged with finding a new director, took a preliminary vote and discussed candidates for the job by e-mail, The Courier in Conroe reported.

The newspaper obtained the e-mail correspondence through open records’ requests.

In 2003 two past members of the hospital board avoided indictment for violating the act by accepting a pretrial settlement that included public service.