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Santa Ana officials may throw out a policy requiring photojournalists to capture public meetings from a remote corner in the council chambers after criticism from a prominent First Amendment rights group, Voice of OC and other professional journalism groups.
[Read: Santana: Politicians in Santa Ana Don’t Want Residents To See Them Up Close]
At tonight’s 5:30 p.m. city council meeting, officials will discuss withdrawing their media policy restricting how journalists can film and photograph public meetings, where officials make decisions that impact the quality of life of residents.
The discussion to get rid of the policy comes at the request of Councilmembers Ben Vazquez, who is running for Mayor, and Jessie Lopez, who is up for reelection.
Both argue rescinding the policy will bring the city in line with the “standards of local press freedoms.”
“The ‘Guidelines’ document does not make clear how the policy is to be enforced. The designated media area is extremely limited,” reads the council members’ request to get rid of the policy.
“To date, the media policy has not been publicly discussed by the City Council nor has it been agreed upon by the Council majority.”
To view the policy, click here.
In a phone interview Monday, Vazquez called the policy restrictive and said the city needs to allow reporters to take pictures freely while also ensuring people with disabilities have equal access to the meetings.
“We have to give the press access to as much possible area to do their job,” he said. “The current policy is policing the press and not giving service to those in need.”
Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilmembers Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan, David Penaloza and Lopez did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Vazquez and Lopez’s request comes a little over a month after Voice of OC Publisher and Editor in Chief Norberto Santana Jr. announced that the newsroom is protesting the policy by using a cartoon to depict council members instead of photos of council deliberation and exploring taking legal options against the guidelines.
The newsroom isn’t alone in criticizing Santa Ana’s media policy.
California’s First Amendment Coalition, the Orange County Press Club, and other journalism groups also condemned Santa Ana’s media policy in a December 2023 letter – arguing that it violates the state’s chief open meeting law, the Brown Act.
David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, said in a Monday phone interview that the Brown Act allows the press to record city council meetings unless there is a persistent disruption of the meeting.
“I’m not aware of any facts showing that there’s ever been people taking pictures or video that was a persistent disruption,” Loy said. “Free press is the oxygen of the civil society here. Press should be allowed to cover the government as it sees fit.”
In response to the December 2023 letter, Lopez, Vazquez and Councilman Johnathan Hernandez posted on Instagram stating the media policy was crafted without “proper legal vetting” and encouraged the filming and recording of public meetings.
Hernandez, who is also running for reelection, said in a Monday phone interview that he is happy his colleagues are asking to get rid of the policy.
“I don’t believe that the city should ever have a role in telling a journalist how to do their job or where they should do their job from,” He said. “This policy creates a framework for police to interact with journalists who are really there to do their job, and it places people’s lives in danger.”
How Did the Policy Come About?
Hernandez said the policy came about to protect Mayor Amezcua from media coverage of how she treats people who oppose her political views, pointing to meetings at the end of last year where a lot of people speak in favor of the city calling for a ceasefire in Palestine.
At one of those meetings in December last year, the city council cleared the chambers after members in the audience interrupted the meeting and chanted for a ceasefire.
As council members left their seats, police officers formed a wall in front of the dais.
[Read: Santa Ana City Council Kicks Public Out of Meeting After Ceasefire Chants]
“These are public servants that were being directed at the behest of police funded elected officials to remove the public and press from the room, and many members of the press were not allowed back into the room so I do believe that there was a violation of the Brown Act,” Hernandez said.
Vazquez said the City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said the policy came from her office.
“But rarely does any policy move forward from the city attorney’s office without push from a council member,” he said
“Whoever on the city council pushed for this should step forward and acknowledge that they were the ones asking and the ones pushing for the change in policy that we didn’t get to have a conversation on.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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