Sunshine: Official threatens reporter with jail
Hinds County Emergency Management Agency Chief Bonehead Director Larry Fisher threatened Clarion-Ledger reporter Chris Joyner with jail for not identifying himself as a journalist and for pressing the issue of trying to obtain a copy of the county’s emergency preparedness plan, which is a public document. Fisher even went as far as to run a criminal background check and contact the FBI over the Joyner’s inquiries.
Writes the C-L’s editorial board: “A basic tenet of the American model of democracy is that individual civil liberties are worth protecting. One of the most precious civil liberties is the right of the public to have open access to public records and public meetings.”
One reason the Hinds authorities might be a little prickly when it comes to the plan: It hasn’t been updated in seven years – since before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.