California Assembly curtailing media’s access
By Jim Sanders, Sacramento Bee
The California Assembly has begun enforcing a dusty rule in which the media can watch lawmakers debate public policy on one condition: Turn off the video cameras and microphones.
Sergeants-at-arms, in a broad push by Assembly leaders to enhance decorum, recently began confronting credentialed members of the media and others who were recording or videotaping official business during public session.
The issue pits the right of the media to document actions of public officials affecting public policy against lawmakers’ concerns that a private conversation or an unseemly gesture could be captured and transmitted instantly via the Internet.