Update: On December 12, 2023, FAC, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists sent this letter to DA Price explaining why media credentials should not be a requirement for journalists to attend press conferences.
Update: On December 2, 2023, District Attorney Pamela Price’s office restored Raguso’s access to press conferences in this announcement. Raguso wrote about the announcement here.
Update: On December 1, 2023, the same groups followed up with a second letter to Alameda County DA Pamela Price responding her to office’s comments to reporters about why Raguso was excluded. That letter can be found here.
Today the First Amendment Coalition, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists sent the letter below to Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price, objecting to the DA’s refusal to allow Berkeley Scanner journalist Emilie Raguso to attend a press conference yesterday. Raguso wrote about being turned away here.
The group’s letter notes: “Beyond the threat to Ms. Raguso’s press freedoms, your office’s actions exert a chilling effect on the journalism community as a whole. No reporter should have to couch their coverage of public officials for fear of losing basic rights guaranteed to the media. Whatever your office’s intent may have been, its actions suggest that reporters will be punished for critical coverage. The First Amendment does not tolerate such interference with a free press, intentional or otherwise.