Wednesday, January 9, 2008

BLOOMBITO LIMITS PRESS COVERAGE


New York News Network
Bloomberg Administration Hesitates on Press Freedom
by Maurize PinzonJanuary 1, 2008
The Bloomberg Administration is considering putting a limit on the number of reporters allowed to cover public events at City Hall and around New York City by limiting the distribution of press credentials.
The New York City Police Department is the city agency that issues press credentials but according to its own website, nothing has changed. Currently, the website advises reporters to print out a Press Credential Application and then call the office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information (DCPI) for an appointment to renew the reporter’s credentials in person.

According to the website, Working Press Cards are for members of the press “whose routine duties require them to cross police and fire lines and are regularly involved in spot emergency news coverage” such as “shootings, fires, [and] homicides.” Press Identification Cards are issued to “members of the press who do not hold Working Press Cards but do have a need for an official Police Department identification card in order to fulfill their various assignments.”

When this reporter placed a call on December 31, 2007, to make an appointment with DCPI to renew his press identification credentials, a woman who answered the telephone indicated she had been told to “suspend the renewal of them. We just don’t know if it’s a temporary decision or a long term decision.”

She added, “All they’re doing is issuing and renewing Working Press credentials.”
“They” appears to mean the decision makers at the highest levels of city government. Press calls to Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, and Carol A. Robles-Román, the Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs and Counsel to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, were not returned.
Instead, Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, said he would be the point of contact for clarification of the matter. Mr. Post said he would try to get an answer to this reporter as soon as possible.

However, according to one individual familiar with the brewing dispute between First Amendment advocates and the Bloomberg administration, the Mayor’s office is not sure how to proceed because “press identification credentials” may be too open-ended a term. According to this individual, the Bloomberg Administration fears that there would be no limit to the number of varied reporters, including bloggers, who would request press credentials.

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