Modesto needs to dump media policy that violates First Amendment rights | Opinion

Modesto’s policy of restricting media contact with any of its workers shows a lack of transparency by the city manager’s office that can result in a chilling effect on democracy. There is no other way to parse the findings of Modesto Bee reporter Trevor Morgan.

We question the city’s need to prohibit its 1,200 employees from speaking with the media unless they have explicit permission or are supervised. We doubt the drafters of the First Amendment would have wanted such restraints on a free press that informs citizens and provides a check on government.

Yes, Modesto’s policy violates the First Amendment no matter how much City Manager Joe Lopez, Mayor Sue Zwahlen or City Public Relations Manager Sonya Severo say otherwise. Similar policies enacted by other governmental agencies nationally have been struck down by the courts.

The city’s policy requires that all media inquiries be channeled through the city manager’s office. Workers, as part of a “no surprises policy,” are required to file a report to the city manager of potential stories before they are published. The policy also requires media interviews to be supervised by a city official.

“A very big role of ours is that there’s no surprises,” Lopez told The Bee. “I shouldn’t be surprised … I shouldn’t read a story (or) an article that I’m not aware of.”

He also said he needs to notify elected officials prior to a story’s publication to explain why that story was “relevant enough to be in the paper.”

It’s hogwash for Lopez to think his sensitivity takes precedence over the First Amendment and transparency. The Founding Fathers didn’t address a city manager’s desire to not be surprised by the news when they guaranteed freedom of the press in order to hold government accountable.

For decades, Modesto Bee reporters have had access to municipal workers, developing sources vital to its reporting of how the city operates and informing its readers of successes and failures. Now, reporters are told no unless they adhere to the wishes of the city manager.

The policy doesn’t apply to elected officials or to employee interactions with businesses, local community leaders or everyday citizens.

How Modesto’s policy works

The policy, according to Morgan’s reporting, requires all media inquiries for questions, comments or other information be directed to the city’s communications department, which is overseen by Severo. Her team then does its own research and communicates with the reporter about its findings.

Lopez said the policy helps the media by providing “more consistent and probably more information” than reporters could get on their own.

The city defends the policy, saying it isn’t trying to filter or hide information from the media but instead wants to ensure it gets the most consistent and accurate information. It appears that Lopez also wants to add an editor title to his resume.

Any interviews set up with employees the city chooses will be monitored by Severo or someone on her staff.

“I’m just making sure that our city manager, at the least, is aware of what ... occurred in that interview, so that he’s not surprised,” she told The Bee.

We are disappointed that the mayor and the six council members have allowed this to happen. Zwahlen told The Bee the policy isn’t “problematic at all” and “seems like an organized way of getting accurate information out to our residents.”

Mayor, the city’s policy is an attempt to put out glowing press releases. It removes transparency that municipal leaders ought to deliver to their constituents.

Legal experts see problems

First Amendment experts see red flags in Modesto’s policy.

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, summed it up perfectly: “I think it’s simply unconstitutional to just prohibit city staff across the board from talking to the press without permission, particularly if they’re allowing them to talk to the public without permission,” he told The Bee.

He said the policy is “an unconstitutional prior restraint.”

David Colnic, a political science professor at California State University, Stanislaus, also weighed in.

“It gives me the impression that it’s going to undermine our public workers’ ability to communicate with what’s happening in their units and what they’re in charge of. And that means the more apprehensive that our public workers are of all sorts, the less we’re going to know what’s really happening with the city of Modesto.”

The First Amendment, Colnic said, “exists for a reason.”

“That reason is that the press helps to identify things that we cannot directly experience,” he said.

First Amendment advocate Karl Olson, an attorney for McClatchy Media, said the city’s policy violates the First Amendment and the rights of city workers. It “just seems to me like a pretty blatant effort to kind of sanitize and censor what city employees say,” he said.

There’s a reason The Washington Post began printing the slogan “Democracy dies in darkness” in 2017. The Bee and other media exist to keep a check on government. What Modesto is attempting to do is to hamstring the media from doing its job.

We suggest the city of Modesto drop its policy and embrace transparency.