New York

Earlier this month, the District Attorney for Bronx County, New York, withdrew a subpoena seeking the identities of anonymous posters on political blog Room Eight. The posters had criticized local politicians and Bronx Republican Party officials in blog posts and comments. District Attorney Robert T. Johnson also freed Room Eight operators Gur Tsabar and Ben Smith from the subpoena's demand that they not reveal the subpoena's existence to anyone - including the anonymous posters. (See our Legal Threats Database entry regarding the subpoena for more background.)

While the D.A.'s withdrawal of the subpoena and non-disclosure demand is great news for the anonymous posters, it is disappointing that the court didn't have a chance to issue a decision on Room Eight's motion to quash the subpoena. This would have been a great opportunity to establish precedent on a couple of important First Amendment issues of concern to citizen media.   read more »

The New York Legislature recently passed several open records and open meetings reforms, adding New York to the long list of states that have taken steps to revamp their open government laws this year. Among other changes, the bills would increase electronic access to government records, prevent agencies from denying voluminous records requests, and make it easier for citizens who successfully challenge an open meetings violation to win awards of legal costs and attorneys' fees. The bills await consideration by Governor David A. Paterson before becoming law.

S962, perhaps the most interesting update to the state's open records law, requires an agency to produce a record in the medium requested by the person seeking information, so long as the agency can "reasonably" provide the record in the requested medium or hire an outside service to do it. This reform will make it possible to request more records in electronic -- rather than paper -- format, making it easier for citizens to use electronic means of searching, organizing, and analyzing information.   read more »

A bill pending in the New York Legislature would allow the public to photograph, videotape, and audio record public meetings in New York, providing better access to government deliberations and information. It would impose two minor conditions: the photographing or recording activity must not be disruptive, and the public body holding the meeting can regulate where equipment and personnel are located in the room. The bill is an amendment to section 103 of the New York Open Meetings Law, which gives the public a right of access to the meetings of a large number of government bodies at the state and local level. 

Judicial decisions in New York have already indicated that the public may use unobtrusive recording devices in public meetings and have influenced Missouri and North Dakota to provide the same recording right. In Mitchell v. Board of Education of Garden City Union Free School District, 113 A.D.2d 924 (N.Y. App. Div. 1985), the court reasoned that allowing the public to use recording devices at public meetings may provide a better way to document what transpires at the meetings than merely using pen and paper. The court expressed that

[a] contemporaneous recording of a public meeting is undoubtedly a more reliable, accurate and efficient means of memorializing what is said at the proceeding. Once the information and comments are conveyed to the public, it should be of no consequence that they may subsequently be repeated, by means of replay, to those who were unable to attend.   read more »

LoHud.com, an online news site operated by The Journal News that focuses on New York's Lower Hudson Valley, reported on Friday that a Westchester County judge has ruled that it must turn over the names of three pseudonymous posters to former House Representative Richard Ottinger and his wife, June Ottinger. According to the report, Ottinger and his wife subpoenaed The Journal News asking for identifying information for posters to the site's Mamaroneck community forum going by the psuedonyms "SAVE10543," "hadenough," and "aoxomoxoa." The posters allegedly made statements accusing the Ottingers of unsavory conduct in the course of a neighborhood dispute over their construction of a house in the Village of Mamaroneck, NY. 

The Journal News moved to quash the subpoena,  but the court ruled that the newspaper had to turn over the requested information.  Although the details are still sketchy, the court appears to have applied the standard for protecting the First Amendment right to anonymous speech set forth in Dendrite v. Doe, 775 A.2d 756 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2001). We are trying to get the underlying court documents, and we'll update this post and our database entry, Ottinger v. The Journal News, when we have more information.    read more »