Editor’s note: BenitoLink is sharing our experience with San Benito County officials regarding our coverage of the San Benito River homeless encampment clearing, because it touches on the constitutionally protected freedom of the press involving an issue of importance to the community. Below is our account of that experience and our response to the county, making clear we will continue exercising our right to do our jobs. Lea este artículo en español aquí.
San Benito County officials announced during the last week of April that they would soon implement a long-planned clearing of homeless encampments along the San Benito River off Fourth Street in Hollister. BenitoLink assigned a small team of reporters and photographers to cover the first day of the clearing, and to work on a series of articles in the following weeks.
Just prior to the first day of the operation, BenitoLink received word from one of our reporters that Rosemerry Dere, San Benito County’s public information officer, said the operation would be closed to reporters.
On May 2, BenitoLink’s former interim editor Eric Johnson sent an email to Dere to let her know that we would nevertheless be sending a small team of reporters and photographers to the riverbank to cover the sweep. The email reads in part: “Because this action involves public agencies and public money, it’s our responsibility as a news organization to cover it. Noe [Magana] has reached out to Sheriff Taylor to let him know.”
The email contained the subject line, “BenitoLink will be covering the encampment cleanup Monday.” Dere replied within 10 minutes with an email in which she altered the subject line to read: “BenitoLink will NOT be covering the encampment cleanup Monday.”
Her email read as follows: “We are respectfully asking that no journalists participate in or interfere with the operation in any way as we cannot be liable for anything that happens to them while they’re there. We also need to be conscious of the respect and privacy of these unhoused individuals and any mental health concerns that might be present due to this situation. Additionally, they will not be allowed on any private or county property during this operation and I have confirmed these details with our legal department. Again, this is for Safety reasons for everyone involved.”
Because this email arrived late in the afternoon on Friday, May 2, and the clearing was set to take place the following Monday morning, the BenitoLink editorial team felt it was essential that the issue be resolved quickly. Reporter Noe Magana called the hotline of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the BenitoLink editorial team spoke with that organization’s senior attorney, Jennifer Nelson.
Nelson agreed that the First Amendment gives BenitoLink the right to assert its journalistic responsibilities, and told us there is specific precedent under the U.S. 9th Circuit Court allowing news organizations to document actions such as homeless encampment sweeps. The court has ruled that journalists generally have the right to observe and report on such events provided they don’t violate the law.
BenitoLink passed that information along to Dere, and restated our belief that “we are obliged as a news organization to document an important operation like this.”
Our email continued, in part: “We understand the sensitive nature of this operation and the county’s wish to protect the individuals involved. We are committed to keeping a safe distance from the action and cooperating with any police orders.”
It goes on: “If the county provides us with guidelines that will allow us to do our jobs and give the people of San Benito County the news they deserve, we reiterate our commitment to be respectful of the need for safety and privacy within reason.”
Covering the clearing
On the morning of Monday, May 5, reporters Noe Magana and Juan Pablo Perez Burgos arrived at the scene of the county’s cleanup operation, where Dere confronted them and told them they had to move to an area more than 100 yards away, where they would not be able to witness the operation.
Instead, determined to do their jobs, Magana and Perez Burgos walked up to the Fourth Street bridge, where they managed to observe and photograph much of what took place. Their account of the operation is here.
At the scene of the sweep, Dere also informed our reporters that she had sent an email an hour earlier, which they had not yet seen. The email stated that “access to the cleanup operation site will be strictly prohibited.”
On May 6, BenitoLink sent Dere a note requesting information about the sweep, including the number of people removed from the riverbed, whether there were beds available at the homeless shelter, and whether there were hotel vouchers available. Five weeks later, we still have not received answers to those questions.
Meanwhile, on May 14, Dere sent BenitoLink an email with the subject line “Professional Relationships,” which outlined the conditions under which she would, as San Benito County’s public information officer, grant BenitoLink’s reporters access to the county’s elected officials and county staffers.
We then sent an email to Dere requesting clarification as to where the decision to restrict BenitoLink’s access to public information originated.
Media access to news events
The county’s May 5 email includes more than six of what Dere called “legal references and justifications to help clarify the legal standing we have in this situation and situations like this.”
Attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, having reviewed the county’s legal arguments, responded the county on May 27 with a letter stating that the “County’s conduct violates the United States Constitution and California law.”
“The Reporters Committee and BenitoLink urge the County to change course and respect the rights of the press and the public to observe and record government actions moving forward,” the attorneys’ response read.
The letter specifically addressed the county’s justifications for barring BenitoLink from the sweep: “Courts in California and beyond have resoundingly rejected a generalized interest in safety and privacy—relied on by the County here—as a sufficient justification for imposing a blanket ban on press coverage of newsworthy public events, as the County attempted to do at the May 5 sweep.”
On June 6, Jim Johnson, who recently joined BenitoLink as Managing Editor, sent a note to Dere and the officials copied on her original note asking for confirmation that they received our attorneys’ letter and to let us know if they intended to respond.
We received the following response on June 9 from David Prentice of the law firm Prentice Long, which provides legal services to San Benito County: “We have received [your] email and take it very seriously. I will look into this and get back to you.”
At publication time, we had not yet heard back from the county’s legal representatives or anyone else from the county regarding this matter.
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