📋 45 story ideas, press rights and public records crash courses, and much more was packed into FAC's Inland Empire Watchdog Workshop on May 8. Journalists came together to learn, connect, and sharpen their tools for holding power accountable. 🔍
See the story in the link in our bio>>
📸 Daniel Eduardo Hernandez
Inland Empire journalists, FAC is headed your way tomorrow to:
✅️ brainstorm investigative story ideas
✅️ tackle your public records access questions
✅️ deepen your knowledge of press rights
Featuring @kvcrpublicmedia & @investigatela , with support from @riversiderecord !
VICTORY! A judge has ruled the City of Fresno broke the law when it held its budget committee meetings in secret. FAC brought this lawsuit with ACLU of Northern California.
See the link in our bio for the story >>
On Thursday, Shasta Scout, in partnership with the First Amendment Coalition and American Community Media, hosted an event to educate the public about their rights during public meetings.
Thanks to FAC Legal Director David Loy for his expertise, FAC Press Education Specialist Thad Greenson for moderating, ACoM Founder and Director Emeritus Sandy Close and Editor Peter Schurmann for providing refreshments and for their support during the event, and to our audience for their participation and great questions.
We appreciate the opportunity to inform every member of the public, regardless of their political ideology or beliefs. Civic engagement is the heart of a healthy community. Thanks for being in community with us.
Photos by Madison Holcomb.
TODAY! We're excited to be in Redding today to give a Know Your Rights program on public meetings protections. We're proud to partner with Shasta Scout and American Community Media to offer this educational community event.
The headline says it all: "Student journalists' free press rights tested at Marin County high school".
A CA school district ordered student journalists to take down two stories -- a violation of the state's student journalists' press rights law. @edsource talked to @studentpresslawcenter and FAC about school admins squelching students' press freedom.
See the link in our bio for the story >>
The Vallejo Sun had a hearing Wednesday in its lawsuit against the city of Vallejo over the city’s failure to comply with state transparency laws involving a recent police shooting.
The @facoalition , a non-profit organization committed to promoting free speech and free press, represents the Sun in the lawsuit, which seeks the full release of unedited video from the Aug. 29 incident, without obscuring the identity of police officers. During the shooting, the officers wounded 24-year-old Alexander Schumann, who allegedly pointed a pellet gun at the officers and is now facing criminal charges.
The city released some video of the incident during a Sept. 11 town hall meeting, but has said the remaining video is exempt from disclosure because of the criminal proceedings. The Vallejo Sun and the First Amendment Coalition argue that the city is violating AB 748, a transparency law passed in 2019 which requires the release of video of police shooting incidents.
The lawsuit argues that AB 748 “does not permit a public agency to withhold critical incident recordings merely because a criminal case is pending” and requires the full disclosure of available recordings.
#policeshooting #transparency #publicrecord #vallejo
What is the San Diego Police hiding? SDPD refuses to release bodycam footage of their role in ICE operations. We’re representing Kate Morrissey of @daylightsdnews to get the truth. The public deserves to know what police in their community are doing.
See the link in our bio for more >>
📸 Screenshot from video by @officialarturoo
What are authorities trying to hide? 🕵️♂️
Join FAC Legal Director David Loy and Press Education Specialist Thad Greenson on Friday, 4/24 at 11 AM PT for a deep dive with @AmericanCommunityMedia on uncovering ICE's local partnerships. Get records, read the data, and know what to look for.
Don't miss this briefing. See the link in our bio >>
FAC's Paloma Esquivel (center) joined Dr. Mai Nguyen Do (left) of Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice and our friend Willie Lubka of Buen Vecino to talk about obtaining and using data to advance accountability at the annual Immigrant Day of Action in Sacramento last week.
📸 @MovementPhotographer
FAC is representing journalist Joey Scott in a lawsuit against Imperial County for withholding public records about the county's cooperation with ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies.
See the link in our bio for more about this lawsuit >>
No matter your politics, we can all agree that timely transparency is essential for government accountability. But the state assembly is considering a bill, AB 1821, that will make public records request responses even slower.
FAC's David Snyder testified against AB 1821 yesterday before the Assembly's Judiciary Committee.
Read why FAC opposes AB 1821 in the link in our bio >>
