{"id":26544,"date":"2011-02-25T19:45:28","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T02:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=26544"},"modified":"2011-02-25T19:45:30","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T02:45:30","slug":"watchdog-group-concerned-about-senate-photo-filming-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/watchdog-group-concerned-about-senate-photo-filming-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog group concerned about Senate photo, filming rule"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14618\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 120px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14618\" title=\"Welsh, Sarah\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/Welsh-Sarah.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Welsh<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmfog.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">N.M. Foundation for Open Government<\/a> sent a letter to Senate committee chairs and ranking members today stating that it is \u201cgravely concerned\u201d that senators are placing \u201cnew and unconstitutional restrictions\u201d on people wanting to photograph or film public meetings.<\/p>\n<p>The letter came after FOG Executive Director Sarah Welsh witnessed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/there%e2%80%99s-no-good-reason-to-shut-down-webcasting\/\" target=\"_blank\">an exchange between me and Sens. John Arthur Smith and Sue Wilson Beffort<\/a> during Thursday\u2019s Finance Committee meeting. Smith and Beffort stopped a hearing to ask who I was and why I wanted to photograph before deciding that I could proceed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026we witnessed the rule being implemented in a way that threatens citizens\u2019 First Amendment rights,\u201d Welsh wrote in the letter to senators.<\/p>\n<p>She wrote that the exchange between me and the senators \u201cindicates that permission was \u201cpredicated on having an identity and a profession or purpose that met with committee approval.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the right to film public meetings is not conditional \u2013 it is guaranteed to all citizens by the First Amendment,\u201d Welsh wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The new rule, approved Wednesday on a vote of 35-3, requires permission from the chair and ranking member before someone can photograph or film a committee meeting. Previously, permission was not required.<\/p>\n<p>Welsh wrote that FOG wanted to share its concerns with senators because \u201cwe trust that it was not the Senate\u2019s intention to infringe upon fundamental First Amendment freedoms within the walls of the capitol building.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The N.M. Foundation for Open Government sent a letter to Senate committee chairs and ranking members today stating that it is \u201cgravely concerned\u201d that senators are placing \u201cnew and unconstitutional restrictions\u201d on people wanting to photograph or film public meetings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[111,107],"class_list":["post-26544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}