Under the guise of security, the Arizona House of Representatives closed down access to the floor for reporters who refused to undergo extensive background checks. Organizations refusing the checks include the Associated Press, the Arizona Republic, the Capitol Times and Capitol Media Services. The new policy not only requires criminal records but all driving and other public records. The policy could also bar reporters from the House floor for committing misdemeanor offenses such as trespass. The security argument had scant credibility with the revelation that the House speaker allowed legislators to bring concealed weapons onto the floor. (Arizona Capitol Times, April 7, 2016, by Howard Fischer)
Republican leaders refused to budge under national criticism for their new policy. Critics say that reporters need easy access to do an adequate job of covering the news and noted that reporters on the floor of a legislature have never been a security risk. (Cronkite News, April 8, 2016, by Katie Bieri)
An editorial by The State Press, April 10, 2016, argued that reporters and other citizens should have a degree of privacy free of government intrusion. “If the government begins to scrutinize the lives and in doing so infringe on the rights of reporters, the press becomes that much less free — the information people hear about their government officials is placed directly under the scrutiny of the officials themselves,” The State Press wrote.