FOR RELEASE IMMEDIATELY
Contact: Kathryn Foxhall, SPJ DC Board Member, 202-417-4572 kfoxhall@verizon.net
According to news reports the administration has tightened controls on government health officials and scientists in terms of all statements and public appearances about the Corona COVID-19.
The D.C. Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) warns that such control over the communication of health officials and scientists to the journalists is dangerous and damaging to the public’s understanding of the coronavirus situation, as well as most other issues.
The chapter, representing many decades of reporting experience, emphasizes to policymakers that critical understanding often is only uncovered or pulled together when the journalists can talk to people without oversight and when they can talk in confidence to experts, if necessary.
We appreciate the need, at times, for leaders to designate particular persons or arenas as the source of the official story. However, silencing or hampering other flows of expression only ensures that all of us, including the leaders, are in the dark about many things.
We stress the current restrictions are only the latest step in a decades-long trend to control reporting and information flow. Many agencies and offices in the federal government and elsewhere have for years prohibited employees from speaking to the press without permission from the authorities, often through public information officers. The restrictions withhold information that belongs to the public.
We encourage reporters to reflect this background in their coverage.
We note as salient examples of these long-standing restrictions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at the National Institutes of Health. Staff are prohibited from speaking to reporters without controls, and most staff can never talk to reporters.
A recent, extensive legal review concludes that the restrictions are illegal. SPJ’s press release on that, with links to the society’s work on the issue, is below.
The Society of Professional Journalists is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.