The struggle to keep public health panels transparent and always strictly adhering to sunshine principles is a constant one.
The latest skirmish in this ongoing struggle took place recently against the CDC's mandated and funded HIV advisory prevent council in San Francisco, which is administered by SF DPH employees, and I hope the prevention project officers at the CDC are paying close attention to how its SF panel deals with the local gay press. CDC officials should weigh on this complaint from the editor of our leading gay paper.
From the January 11 BAR:
The Bay Area Reporter is challenging a rule initiated by an HIV policy panel that restricts the ability of photojournalists to take photos at its meetings as a violation of the city's open meetings laws.
A committee of the city's Sunshine Ordinance Task Force voted Tuesday, January 9 to send the B.A.R.'s complaint to the full task force for review. The task force will determine if the HIV Prevention Planning Council, which sets policy on how the city allocates federal HIV prevention funds, must change its photography and videotaping rules.
At its September 14 meeting, HPPC officials informed B.A.R. photographer Rick Gerharter he could not take photographs because he had not requested permission to do so prior to the afternoon meeting. [...]
HPPC co-chair Tracey Packer, the health department's interim HIV prevention director, told the task force's complaint committee this week that the HPPC adopted its restriction on photography years ago after AIDS dissidents harassed HPPC members by using their photos on Web sites and fliers.
"We want to be able to tell our members a photographer is in the room and will be taking photos. Some of our people are HIV-positive, are drug users, or are homeless. We want them to be comfortable and safe at our meetings," said Packer. [...]
B.A.R. news editor Cynthia Laird filed the complaint with the task force late last year. At Tuesday's meeting she said public policy bodies such as the HPPC must allow unrestricted access to news media professionals covering its meetings as required under the sunshine ordinance.
Laird said members of such bodies should expect to be photographed and should not be "coddled and protected" by city officials.
"I feel as a newspaper our photographer should be able to go into a public meeting and take photos. They are a public body," she said. [...]
Hey, Cynthia Laird -- thanks much for filing this complaint and standing up for the rights of photojournalists to do their work, as protected by the First Amendment, at CDC HIV panels. Click here to read the full BAR news article.
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