NEW ORLEANS — Private and public workplace employees face an evolving threat to democracy: gag rules, which state that people are not allowed to speak freely or express their opinions about a particular subject.
Kathryn Foxhall, a veteran reporter on federal health issues, and Frank LoMonte, CNN legal counsel and a distinguished First Amendment lawyer, presented to members of the Society of Professional Journalists at the “Jazzed about Journalism” Regions 8 and 12 Conference in early September. The two discussed the rise of gag rules and provided counsel to students who are combatting this problem.
Gagging rules are often written in employment contracts; however, they may also be instilled through workplace culture, promoting the idea that employees who disclose wrongdoings or problems about their employer or business will be punished.
The 1967 Federal Freedom of Information Act, which LoMonte said has not been seriously overhauled since 1996, established the first federal. However, as LoMonte explained, getting access to employees is far less common.
“I think – Kathryn sort of brought it up – that it would have been at an earlier time in our culture, something that carried some adverse consequences to it, right?” LoMonte said. “If you go back to the 60s or 70s if a government agency got known as ‘this is an agency that has a reputation for being unduly secretive,’ that had consequences. People would distrust the head of the agency, they would want to see the head of the agency replaced, right?”
LoMonte provided examples of the distrust between the people and their institutions arising from transparency issues, such as police turning off body camera footage at the scene of a pullover or arrest.
However, the veteran lawyer explained that the Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of free speech advocates, such as journalists, and the law.
Subsequently, Foxhall took the stage to discuss the culture within journalism and how the industry has evolved to allow this blindspot to develop. She explained that journalists, for better and for worse, can get the story published regardless of an information director’s inability to respond, which does a disservice to the public.
“Unfortunately, we’re so good that we often do get a very good story,” Foxhall said. “But let me tell you something – with whatever it is: dozens or hundreds or thousands of people in that agency (have been) told not to talk. Most of them are not talking. You’re not talking to people on a open, unsolved, unfair atmosphere. And there are things being hidden.”
However, Foxhall said she hopes journalists will form coalitions in their local areas to combat gag rules and corruption within institutions.
“You don’t need to wait until you find out that a problem has been going on for 20 years, and people on the inside have not said anything about it, because they can’t talk to you.”
Foxhall used words wisely when explaining the dangers of gag orders.
“If the policy is there, it’s corruption.”