Please note that similar letters were sent to officials in New York City on June 6, 2020, and Denver on June 16, 2020. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition recently joined 115 other press advocates around the country to demand an end to attacks against […]
By Jeffrey J. Pyle and Michael J. Lambert In a pair of decisions released on March 12, 2020, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ordered law enforcement agencies to provide incident reports, mugshots, and prosecution data to The Boston Globe. In both decisions, the SJC rejected arguments — long invoked by agencies and municipalities — […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition recently argued for the right to secretly record the public activities of government officials, including police officers. In an Oct. 4 amicus brief drafted by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, NEFAC and other media organizations explained […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition opposes a bill in Massachusetts that would make police-worn body camera footage exempt from the state’s public records law. In addition to establishing a taskforce to explore the use of body cameras and law enforcement policies, House Bill 2120 […]
Have a public records story you would like to share? Email justin@nefac.org with your experience trying to obtain information through a state public records law. By Colman M. Herman It is a fact of life that the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) often fail to respond to public records requests. And when they do, appeals often […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org After calls for disclosure by the New England First Amendment Coalition and other transparency advocates, the Vermont State Police recently ended more than two weeks of secrecy and provided the name of a teen driver involved in a fatal crash last month. “While the state […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition will join other media and open government groups today for a press briefing at the Vermont Supreme Court, 111 State Street in Montpelier. The briefing will immediately follow arguments in a lawsuit brought by ACLU of Vermont that seeks […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition argued that Vermont residents should be able to view, free of charge, police body camera footage, calling access to such public documents the “vena cava of an open society.” “Without this access, citizens must rely on the statements of […]
R.I. State Police Continue to Withhold Information FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | justin@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition praises the Providence Police Department for promptly releasing body camera footage showing the recent fatal shooting of a Rhode Island man as he rammed his pickup truck into other vehicles on Interstate 95. The coalition, however, criticizes the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Justin Silverman | 774.244.2365 | mail@nefac.org The New England First Amendment Coalition recently joined an amici curiae brief in a case involving a journalist arrested in 2011 while recording police at an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit — which has […]