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A&A: When is it okay to videotape a meeting?

FAC December 5, 2010

Q: I’m a local news stringer. I attended a community meeting. Did I have a legal right to videotape this meeting? Were my rights violated? Or was I in the wrong? A: It is unclear from your email whether the community meeting was a meeting of a legislative body, which would be covered by California’s open meeting law, known as the Brown Act. The Brown Act applies to “legislative bodies,” which include commissions, committees, boards

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FAC, News media urge Supreme Court to limit FOIA exemption in case heard this week

FAC December 2, 2010

The US Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments in a FOIA personnel exemption case,  Milner v. Department of the Navy.  FAC along with 19 other news organizations filed an amicus brief for the case. The Washington Post‘s and other news accounts suggest the Court was skeptical of the government’s effort to expand a seemingly narrow FOIA exemption in order to withhold records that, while potentially sensitive, are not sensitive enough to warrant classification. At issue is

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SF Weekly’s Parent Scolds Judge, Court and “Editors with Martinis” for being denied appeal over $21M judgment

FAC December 1, 2010

The Village Voice seems like an unlikely source for a rant against “the political left” and “anti-competitive business practices. ” Yet the enraged parent of the SF Weekly just couldn’t stop itself for taking a couple of verbal swings following the CA Supreme Court’s refusal to hear their appeal against the $21 million judgment awarded their competitor the SF Bay Guardian.  Below, the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club puts the story in context, then comes

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DIY State Department Cable Decoder

FAC November 29, 2010

Want to investigate the cables Wikileaks has released? The National Security Archive has posted a guide to deciphering State Department Cables that should help you interpret the lingo. How to Decipher a State Department Cable November 29, 2010 by Nate Jones This guide –originally written by Kristin Adair– might come in handy as you peruse the 251,287 Department of State cables recently released by wikileaks. [As of today only 243 cables are available on the

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Wikileaks doc release expected Sunday 2PM PST; Two websites are already tracking global response

FAC November 27, 2010

Two websites-–OWNI.fr and Wlcentral — are already tracking global speculation and analysis about the Wikileaks release of 2.8 million classified documents expected to happen Sunday at 2PM PST. Hints of the release time came from Der Spiegal one of the newspapers along withThe New York Times, The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France) and El País (Spain), that has early access to the about to be leaked documents. Der Spiegel  also leaked some details about the

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