Joan Barron: The Fourth Estate Can Finally Win…

CHEYENNE – A legislative committee took surprising action this week for once taking sides with the news media.

As a result, the Fourth District will retain the only fragile sliver of journalistic privilege left: photojournalists will still be able to take photos from the hallways and lobbies outside the Wyoming Senate and Legislature.

The push to end the practice came in September from a committee acting on the recommendation of current House and Senate leadership. The leaders were encouraged by the legislator’s complaint.

During a committee meeting last week, lawmakers reversed their earlier decision, thereby allowing eye-level photo ops from hallways or hallways to continue.

According to articles published in the Cowboy State Daily in Wyofile and the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, the commission faced fierce opposition after its first vote, which recommended that the governing board also close the corridors to photographers.

The committee’s unanimous vote against the new ban will be forwarded to legislative leaders on the governing council next month for a final decision.

For decades, the legislative floor and hallways have been off-limits to Wyoming reporters.

According to the online foundation Freedom of the Press, this decades-long movement to limit legislative reporting saw a resurgence in 2022. That same year, four states – Iowa, Kansas, Texas and Utah – adopted policies limiting journalists’ access to their legislative bodies .

The Mississippi Senate is currently awaiting adoption of a resolution banning journalists from the Senate, with limited exceptions, and abolishing the press office in the Capitol.

Wyoming was at the top of the pack. The ban on access to legislative rooms and hallways is decades old, but the press room was only moved from the Capitol building a few years ago. It is currently located in the basement of the corridor connecting the Capitol with the Herschler Building.

The argument for the restrictions is that modern technology provides journalists with all the information they need to work in the legislature.

The Press Freedom Foundation does not buy this argument. Instead, he attributes anti-press attitudes as the primary motivation for these restrictions.

I don’t fully buy this argument either.

Technology is good and appreciated, but coverage is not the same as a journalist sitting at the table reporting the action on the dance floor and what is happening behind the scenes.

There have always been legislators who became annoyed with the presence of reporters and photographers and wished they would go away.

When I first started covering legislative sessions in the 1970s, one of the Senate’s most powerful and respected leaders told me he wanted the galleries closed to the public; if that happened, lawmakers could do a lot more work.

Which is true, but it is also contrary to the principles of a democratic institution (small d).

The press is called the fourth power because it serves as the guardian of the first three branches of government – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

It’s been a wild ride. Legislative leaders said the first ban on news media – access to the break room – was due to an increase in the number of reporters covering the Legislature.

The Office of Legislative Service currently issues references for 40 to 50 journalists each year.

However, according to Wyofile, only six to ten people attend the session in person.

It’s just like the 70’s. However, all barriers to reporters’ access remain.

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Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or [email protected]