{"id":306326,"date":"2017-03-15T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=306326"},"modified":"2017-03-15T10:14:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T16:14:13","slug":"journalists-will-continue-to-shine-a-light-in-dark-corners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/03\/journalists-will-continue-to-shine-a-light-in-dark-corners\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalists will continue to shine a light in dark corners"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Earlier this year, the president of the United States referred to journalists from news organizations such as The New York Times, CNN and NBC News as the \u201cenemy of the American people.\u201d Shortly after that, reporters from those outlets and others were barred from the White House press gaggle.<\/p>\n

\"Sarah

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Sarah Gustavus<\/p><\/div>\n

This\u00a0Sunshine Week<\/a>, New Mexico journalists can commiserate with colleagues across the country who are under fire from hostile politicians.<\/p>\n

More importantly, we can assure them that there is life outside the news conference.<\/p>\n

It has become a New Mexico tradition for gubernatorial administrations to blacklist journalists who expose stories politicians would rather keep quiet. The situation has worsened under Gov. Susana Martinez, who avoids open news conferences and restricts access to even basic information from several state agencies.<\/p>\n

The Martinez administration is, in fact, set to go on trial for serial violations of the Inspection of Public Records Act, one of our state\u2019s sunshine laws. For possibly the first time anywhere in the country, the governor\u2019s men will go to court to face accusations of violating the Santa Fe Reporter\u2019s free expression rights under the state Constitution because they did not care for the newspaper\u2019s coverage of her governance.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, New Mexico journalists never stopped working for the public.<\/p>\n

Outside the press gaggle and beyond the official propaganda released by state officials, we keep telling the real stories of what is happening across New Mexico. The best and most important stories we write or produce don\u2019t come out of news conferences, which, no matter who is in charge, rarely include much news. They come to us through hard work and investigative reporting. They are brought to us by brave people who have stories to tell \u2014 about their communities, their workplaces, their children\u2019s schools and their personal experiences.<\/p>\n

We continue to serve the public’s best interest, shining a light on government wrongdoing \u2014 no matter the political leaning or party \u2014 and telling the stories so important to our neighbors. Even when we\u2019re turned away from briefing rooms or when elected officials avoid our questions, we\u2019ll unearth good stories. We always have.<\/p>\n

As we celebrate the public\u2019s right to know this Sunshine Week, the Rio Grande Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists<\/a> is fighting on a number of fronts. We\u2019ve been keeping watch on a raft of anti-transparency bills<\/a> wending through the Legislature. And we are disturbed by entrenched government \u201cpublic information officers\u201d who are less and less likely to provide information to the public, as well as elected officials who would rather offer affirmational spin as \u201calternative facts\u201d via social media than answer questions from journalists about how they govern.<\/p>\n

No matter how those fights turn out \u2014 and no matter how many \u201cnews\u201d conferences we\u2019re shut out of \u2014 journalists in this state will continue to shine a light in dark corners and bring important stories in the public interest out of the shadows, no matter what it takes.<\/p>\n

Sarah Gustavus is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Rio Grande Chapter’s Board<\/a> and the producer of\u00a0New Mexico In Focus<\/a>\u00a0on New Mexico PBS\/KNME-TV.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outside the press gaggle and beyond the official propaganda released by state officials, journalists keep telling the real stories of what is happening across New Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[3268,706],"class_list":["post-306326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-journalism","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306326","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=306326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}