Press and Policy

This past Wednesday (April 15) was an important day for me, the college press and open government in Wisconsin. Why? I’ll explain via timeline:

10:45 a.m.: Watched oral arguments in Madison at the WI Supreme Court for Journal Sentinel v. Wis. Dept. of Administration, the public records law case examining whether a collective bargaining agreement for some state employees that says the names of employees cannot be released to the media trumps Wisconsin’s Public Records Law.  (Here’s the court of appeals certification, RCFP amicus brief, and Journal Sentinel coverage)  The opening of the newspaper’s argument included reference to the Wisconsin Supreem Court case County of Jefferson v. Besley – which is said to be the nation’s first freedom of information law.  I first learned of this case while reading a Marquette Law Review article on Wisconsin’s public records law this past fall.  Here’s the pertinent part:

“In 1856 the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared that wood for heating and candles for lighting must be provided so that citizens could comfortably transact business and examine all books and papers required to be kept in the clerk of court’s office.” – Linda de la Mora, The Wisconsin Public Records Law, 67 Marq. L. Rev. (1983); County of Jefferson v. Besley

The controversy was so basic back in 1856: heat and light.  Today, the issues are about e-mail retention systems, e-meetings, and whether e-mail is a proper form of filing a records request. Anyway, the newspapers introduced their argument with this case, and I couldn’t help but smile. (Here’s some background info on the Besley case.  I also randomly quoted it in an earlier blog post.)

12:25 p.m.: Delivered the request for a formal attorney general opinion and met with three attorneys from the AG’s office.  It was supposed to happen at noon, but court ran late.  The request asked the attorney general if student government organizations’s at UW System institutions are subject to Wisconsin’s Public Records and Open Meetings laws.

The rest of the afternoon: The AG request cultivated a solid amount of media attention, thus I was fielding phone calls from interested reporters.  Thank you AP, Wisconsin State Journal, Journal Sentinel Education Blog, Wisconsin Public Radio, Daily Cardinal, Badger Herald, Student Press Law Center, PantherVision, UWM Post, and NFOIC for coverage!  I at least know the AP story was printed in the Wisconsin State Journal because I picked up a copy, and it also ran in the Green Bay Press Gazette (my parents are holding on to one for me).  Most of the distribution, though, was probably online.

The WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association) and several broadcast television stations have filed a lawsuit against the Appleton Post-Crescent (owned by Gannett Co.) and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association for “violat[ing]…the exclusive rights and ownership of the WIAA.”  

The lawsuit claims that the Post-Crescent infringed on the exclusive media rights owned by the WIAA for streaming live video of a high school football game on its Web site in November.  The WIAA says the video stream “constituted an entertainment event” and is now asking a Portage County judge to declare that the WIAA has the right to “control the transmission, Internet stream, photo, image, film, videotape, audiotape, writing, drawing or other depiction of any game, game action, game information, or any commercial used [sic] of the same of an athletic event that it sponsors.” In addition, the WIAA wants the court to order that it has the right to “grant exclusive rights to others, including the plaintiffs named pursuant to Wis. Stats. § 803.03 for tournament events that it sponsors.”

According to the Post-Crescent’s story about the suit, this issue has been brewing since 2007 from other disagreements between the WIAA and the media.  The complaint says the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s attorneys sent a letter to the WIAA in late October 2008 “challenging the WIAA’s right to control Internet streaming and challenging the WIAA’s authority to grant exclusive coverage rights to its sponsored events.” The suit was filed on December 5, but there is no information as to why the story is just coming to light now.

The WIAA is being represnted by Stevens Point-based Anderson, O’Brien, Bertz, Skrenes & Golla.  Online court information of this case was not available at the time of this posting, but the records of the entire case file have been requested.

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report
• AP report
• Wisconsin Law Journal report
• Wausau Daily Herald report (including an interesting note about how this could affect the high school press)
• National Press Photographers Association report

UPDATE: Wausau Daily Herald (owned by Gannett Co.) runs editorial in defense of the Post-Crescent:

Whether a blurry figure in the background, blocking for the quarterback as he threw a pass that led D.C. Everest to victory, or a name in the box score — one hit, one walk, two RBIs — of a Wausau West softball game recap, or even a front-page photo of Mosinee teammates celebrating with a trophy at state, that clipping probably got saved in a scrapbook or stuck to the family fridge with a magnet.

These are the moments of life that a community newspaper is tasked with capturing; the stories that we tell to our readers. They are the texture of central Wisconsin, inasmuch as school sports help define us and anchor us.

They are not the property of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. They are our property — the people of the cities and towns that newspapers across the state journal every day.

But not according to the WIAA.