One Line News in Public Forum Law: 9/13/2013

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | Sep 13, 2013 | 2013, Awareness Area: Government, Awareness Area: Justice, Awareness Area: Liberties, Awareness Area: Politics, Legal Issue: Freedom of Speech, Legal Issue: Freedom of the Press, Legal Issue: Open Courts, Legal Issue: Open Government, Legal Issue: Open Meetings, Legal Issue: Public Information, Legal Issue: Whistleblower Rights, News | 0 |

OPEN GOVERNMENT

CalAware’s proposed Plan B to save the Brown Act and the Public Records Act to go before the voters

Sunlight’s new list has 32 pointers for local/state governments on “proactive disclosure” policies

FREE PRESS

Judge denies deputies’ bid to gag the L. A. Times from publishing leaked background screenings

Governor gets bill requiring 5 day notice to journalists before subpoenas of their phone, email records

Federal shield bill moving to the Senate would protect sources of a wider variety of journalists

OPEN MEETINGS

L.A. Council may allow citizens to address its meetings remotely, avoid hassles of trip downtown

FREE SPEECH

Federal judges cool to arguments that new sex offender online data tracking preserves free speech

PUBLIC INFORMATION

Campaign finance watchdog: Just how helpful will the improved Cal-ACCESS online database be?

WHISTLEBLOWERS

Court: Government attorneys’ ethical duties don’t strip them of law’s whistleblower protections

Secret spy court judge: Snowden leak led to “considerable public interest”; more openness needed

About The Editor

Terry Francke, General Counsel

Terry Francke has a 39-year history of helping journalists, citizens and public officials understand and use their First Amendment and open government rights. With CalAware, Francke has authored comprehensive and authoritative guidebooks to California law on access to government meetings and public records and the news gathering and publication rights of journalists. Focusing on these issues in public forum law, he supervises CalAware's legislative and litigation initiatives; conducts workshops on legal compliance; helps design public records audits; supports local sunshine ordinance drafting efforts; writes CalAware Today, a blog on current developments and proposals in the law and best practices; and answers countless queries by phone and e-mail from citizens, journalists, public officials and employees, and lawyers. Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution. Francke is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a 1979 graduate of McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Prior to his legal career, Francke worked as a weekly newspaper editor and in military and local government public affairs positions.

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