NMPolitics - The N.M. Foundation for Open Government sent a letter to Senate committee chairs and ranking members today stating that it is “gravely concerned” that senators are placing “new and unconstitutional restrictions” on people wanting to photograph or film public meetings. The letter came after FOG Executive Director Sarah Welsh witnessed an exchange between me and Sens. John Arthur Smith and Sue Wilson Beffort during Thursday’s 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.
“…we witnessed the rule being implemented in a way that threatens citizens’ First Amendment rights,” Welsh wrote in the letter to senators. She wrote that the exchange between me and the senators “indicates that permission was “predicated on having an identity and a profession or purpose that met with committee approval.” “But the right to film public meetings is not conditional – it is guaranteed to all citizens by the First Amendment,” Welsh wrote. Read full story here:
News New Mexico
Open Government Watchdog Group: First Amendment Rights are Being Qualified by Committee Chairs
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