FAC

Q: I got a question about legal right (protected by First Amendment or any other Constitutional law) for our reporter here in California to gather news (pictures, videos) being on the private property during a recent major wild fire. We have all permissions from local authorities to gather news in a nearby burned out town (they let us in the closed area), and how we understand, we have all right to take pictures on the

Q: I would Like to know how I sue a newspaper for defamation. Or if not the newspaper, then the editor? A:The First Amendment Coalition does not encourage nor promote lawsuits against newsgatherers.  The First Amendment provides strong protections to news organizations and others that publish information, and defamation claims in particular are difficult to prove.  Defamation, which is also sometimes referred to as libel or slander, is the general term for a legal claim

Q: I am working on a story about a consultant’s work for a California County. I was told recently that the Board of Supervisors heard a report in closed session last month on a pilot project the consultant had done. This has been a sensitive issue so I can understand why they’d want to hear the report privately, but I also can’t see any Brown Act exemption that would actually justify them doing it in

Q: I’d like to obtain an incident report from the police department and they have denied the request. What can I do to access the report? A: If you made a Public Records Act request for the incident report, the police agency here should have cited a valid exemption that applies to the report that would justify its nondisclosure.  If the police have not cited any exemption, you might want to write back and press them

Q: In California, ambulance providers can use a Federal program administer through the DHS (Dept. of Health Care Services) to receive partial reimbursement for Medi-Cal patient ambulance transport. I made a public records request regarding these payments. Today they sent me an e-mail stating they are invoking the right to withhold the financial data related to State Plan Amendment 18-007 under the privilege for trade secrets pursuant to California Government Code section 6254(k) in conjunction