NM Reporter Kicked Out of Senate Committee Meeting!
Pastor Dewey Moede
I Just got this email! NOT GOOD! FREEDOM OF THE PRESS!! This session also has seen House Speaker Brian Egolf end Pastors doing the invocation before the session starts each day! I have spent much of my life in news, starting in 1978 at the Minnesota State News Network, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS!!! TRANSPARENCY!!! We deserve to know! Too much monkey business going on at the Roundhouse!
SPJ RIO GRANDE STANDS BY EVICTED REPORTER
The operative word in public information is “public.”
KRQE journalist Rachel Knapp was doing her job of reporting public information about public legislative proceedings when she was kicked out of a Senate committee meeting on Feb. 8. SPJ Rio Grande strongly believes all legislative proceedings must be open to the public, including the news media.
Some legislators cited a little-known and little-used exception to New Mexico Legislature transparency policies to exclude Knapp from covering the proceedings. She was not only asked to turn her camera off, she was asked to leave this public meeting, which was also a denial of her right to be there as a member of the public and a constituent.
SPJ Rio Grande joins NMFOG in supporting Senate Resolution 2 – a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) – to allow the public to record video and audio without having to get permission.
– This statement from the SPJ Rio Grande board was sent to members of the NM Legislature. Feel free to copy it and send it along as well.
Past Post from NM Watchman Jose Vasquez on Feb. 3rd:
February 3, 2020
No Clergy in the House of Representatives:
Christian Leadership Irrelevant
Dear Believers,
Our churches have not suffered the persecution Christians in other parts of the world have suffered. But the church today has suffered from irrelevance.
The latest onslaught was dealt by a high-ranking New Mexico official, a leader in the New Mexico State Legislature.
The Speaker of the House, Mr. Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) has ended the practice of having clergy begin each floor session with a prayer, an invocation of God’s presence in the proceedings.
The New Mexico Constitution itself requires a prayer, so Mr. Egolf, having dismissed clergy, has called for prayers from the House members themselves.
If Christianity is to remain relevant, our clergy must step forward.
Please have your Pastor, Priest or Rabbi call Mr. Egolf and volunteer.
