The ruling means the TV station’s reporters should be able to attend future Oklahoma State Department of Education board meetings and pressers, just like everyone else.
KFOR’s lawsuit against the state education department alleges the TV station’s reporters have been singled out and denied access to monthly public board meetings and State Superintendent Ryan Walters’ press conferences.
Courtney Corbello is the attorney representing KFOR. She addressed reporters outside the federal courthouse downtown.
“It's a pretty straightforward First Amendment issue,” Corbello said. “When the government opens up limited forums for reporters to then report from, they can't just use their unbridled discretion to figure out who they want there and who they don't.”
The granted temporary restraining order and injunction mean KFOR can, without incident, attend the board meeting this week and be part of any gaggle of reporters that may bunch up around Walters after it concludes. It provides the TV station with the form of immediate relief it requested.
OSDE officials Dan Isett, in his capacity as the press secretary for the department, and Ryan Walters, in his capacity as state superintendent, were represented during the hearing by their agency’s general counsel Michael Beason.
Beason presented the court with three main arguments for barring KFOR access to the room where state board of education meetings are held and the following press conferences: the room’s 49-person capacity causes security concerns when overflowing, state capitol issued press badges don’t guarantee access to every space in the capital complex and the TV station publishes “false” reports that put Walters in a negative light.
Judge Bernard Jones asked Beason whether attendance at board meetings is first come, first served, and if so, how is it determined who is put in the overflow area once the room fills up? The overflow area entails some seating in a narrow hallway, with a large screen, board meetings are live-streamed.
“The meetings are mostly first come first serve, your honor.” Beason said. “Who goes to the overflow room, and then the gaggles afterward, is not only at the discretion of Mr. Isett, but a committee of people that he is a part of.”
“And who is on that committee?” Jones said.
“It is not a formed committee, your honor,” Beason said, explaining that it’s an unofficial group of people who discuss such matters and decide who stays and who is pushed to the overflow area.
Beason then explained why KFOR has been singled out.
“It’s not about the negative press that KFOR is producing, it is about a deviation from the standards they cite in their complaint, which is seeking truth and being accurate in their reporting,” he said.
Cordello summed up her plaintiff's concerns by hinting at what precedent allowing Isett and other OSDE officials to ban certain reporters with certain organizations from public forums would set.
“It’s a matter of government officials deciding who the media is, who gets to cover what and who is in what rooms,” she said. “I shutter at the thought of the government deciding which facts are true and accurate.”
Jones seemed to align with how Cordello was thinking during the hearing and hours later, released his opinion confirming his stance.
“Newsgathering is the lifeblood of free speech—the essential precursor to the dissemination of information and ideas that the public needs to form opinions, participate in democratic processes, and hold those in power accountable,” Jones wrote in his ruling. “Greenlighting a governmental attempt to restrict access to a limited public forum based on its unilateral determination that a news organization’s reporting is factually untrue amounts to an unworkable standard.”
During the hearing, he put it a different way:
“What perplexes me is that this could’ve and should’ve been handled a different way,” Jones said. “As a public official, you’re not always going to like what people say, write or report about you. But it comes with the job.”
