The regents of the University of California may change their media coverage policy next week by allowing more public access to its meetings and allowing recording, videotaping and photographing. -db
San Francisco Chronicle
September 10, 2010
By Nanette Asimov
The University of California Board of Regents is expected to toss out a long-standing policy next week restricting public access to its meetings, and to affirm the public’s right to record, videotape or photograph proceedings.
The regents will decide the issue Wednesday in San Francisco, two months after The Chronicle published a story about UC officials barring a filmmaker from entering a regents meeting in apparent violation of California’s Bagley-Keene open meeting law.
If approved, an eight-paragraph “policy on media coverage” restricting recordings to accredited members of the press would be replaced with a one-paragraph “policy on public access.”
“Meetings of the Board of Regents shall be conducted in compliance with California open meeting laws applicable to the University of California,” it says, stating that people may record or tape meetings if they aren’t disruptive.
“The law clearly requires that they change the policy, and this seems like a fine way to do it,” said attorney Michael Risher of the ACLU of Northern California, who had called on the regents to update their policies in July, after three UC spokespersons questioned filmmaker Ric Chavez or barred him from the public meeting.
Bagley-Keene allows anyone to quietly record or videotape public meetings. It also prohibits state officials from requiring attendees to identify themselves.
But Wednesday, July 14, Chavez, unaware of his rights, e-mailed UC’s public information office asking permission to film the regents. UC spokespersons laid out the restrictions, and asked Chavez to identify himself and explain what he would do with his film.
Ultimately, they said he could not be accommodated in the press section – the only place cameras have been permitted.
Chavez showed up the next day anyway. That’s when a UC spokeswoman barred him from the auditorium with his camera.
A Chronicle reporter, present during the incident, wrote up the story. State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, and several advocates for open government then urged the regents to reconsider their policy from 1975, even as UC attorneys were already taking a look at it.
UC officials also met with Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition in San Rafael, to talk about improving access.
“They were very open to addressing it,” Scheer said. “It would appear they are trying to reboot here with a clean slate and do it right.”
Steve Montiel, a UC official who had questioned Chavez, is a board member of the First Amendment Coalition, and a former journalist.
“We made a mistake at the last regent meeting,” he said. “We took another look at our policy and concluded that, in this day and age when everyone can be a reporter, we needed to open up access to as many people as possible.”
As for Chavez, his reaction suggests what’s in store: “You Tube,” he said, “meet the UC regents!”
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