By Teri Saylor
Special to Publishers’ Auxiliary
Newspaper morgues are fascinating places to behold. Forever frozen in time, the news of days gone by beckons researchers, historians, genealogists, and journalists eager to lose themselves in the bound yellowed pages that have sat on their cool dark shelves for decades.
Likewise, libraries across the country serve as repositories for microfilm, making them available to people lacking access to local newspaper morgues.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out a gag order that prohibited bikers charged in a deadly May 2015 shootout from talking to the media. The court issued an order June 15 that lifted a stay that had been in place since August, when the court ruled that the gag order was wrong but allowed it to stay in place pending further consideration.
The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas has been awarded a grant of $3,500 from the Texas Bar Foundation to produce a concise guidebook on state open government laws and the public’s right to know.
The “Guide to Texas Open Records and Open Meetings Laws” will be available in printed form at FOI Foundation of Texas events beginning later this year. It will also be published online.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is reprinted with the permission of Newspaper Association of America president David Chavern, who addressed the issue during his speech to TPA’s leadership retreat in June.
Newspaper Association of America
How do you make analytics interesting and useful for a newsroom? As the Columbia Missourian began revamping its weekly report, this was the question we asked ourselves.
For freedom of speech and the press to thrive in an online world, the First Amendment must continue as the unabated pillar of the right to robust debate on issues of public concern. More comprehensive progress toward First Amendment protection of the news media remains overdue from the Lone Star State's highest court, but the pair of recent opinions gave online journalism conferees a reason to raise a stein of Shiner Bock.
Some people want to teach, or coach, or wear a suit and make important decisions. I wanted nothing more from my professional career than to be known as a newspaper guy. I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
Soure: http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/joe-henderson-im-proud-be-to-a-newspaper-guy/2276263
By Jim Pumarlo
A mayor takes issue with an editorial that criticized a city council action, calling your facts into question. Irate parents challenge your decision – your right – to report their son didn’t dress for the basketball game because he was suspended for violating school policy. A pastor is critical of an ad you accepted for publication, saying it was in poor taste.
The newspaper group presented the award to Whitmire in recognition of his passage of Senate Bill 308 in the 84th Texas Legislature. The bill applied the state's public information laws to campus police departments at private universities.