ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO CENSOR CANDIDATES’ DEBATE
By LBReport.com
For the second time in two days, a group conducting a debate among Congresswoman Laura Richardson (D—LB, Carson) and challengers Star Parker (R) and Nick Dibs (Ind) tried to ban photographs and recording at the event.
Saturday’s debate was organized and conducted by the Long Beach branch of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and presented in a community building at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in central Long Beach—a public facility. It was moderated by Dr. Felton Williams, president of the Long Beach Unified School District Board, which oversees children’s education on subjects such as the First Amendment to the Constitution—the one that guarantees freedom of speech and the press.
Yet Williams’ opening remarks included this stern advisory: “No photos. Absolutely no photos except for those being taken by the NCNW staff; there’s an official photo taker there, but if people are taking photos we will stop the proceedings. Also there is no taping of any part of this proceeding.”
When freelance photojournalist Diana Lejins heard that, she summoned a Long Beach police officer to seek entry to photograph the proceedings in the publicly accessible meeting in the park building. She got in—and so did her camera, which she pointed and clicked throughout the proceedings.
Afterward, Lejins told LBReport.com that the police officer first spoke with her, then spoke to an individual from the NCNW, then spoke with his police supervisor, and finally returned to inform an event organizer that Lejins had a right to take photographs in the publicly accessible meeting in a park building
Ms. Lejins is disturbed by the attempt to prohibit certain types of information gathering.
“The fact is, they refused in the beginning and I had to call the cops in for them to allow me the right that any press person would have,” she told LBReport.com. To me, they [debate organizers] just blatantly trampled on 1st Amendment rights here in Martin Luther King Park… Here they’re saying you have no rights, the rights are all ours, not yours, and if you’re press, too bad, you can’t exercise your right here…”
During the debate none of the candidates referred to the attempt to ban recording and photographs. Afterward, however, independent candidate Dibs said he favored allowing recording and photography.
“I have no objections to that at all,” Dibs told LBReport.com.
The incident occurred a day after the Long Beach chapter of the League of Women Voters (LBLWV) announced a similar ban on photographs and video recordings of a debate the organizations presented among the same three candidates. That Oct. 15 debate was held at California State University/Long Beach, in the Pyramid’s Pointe conference center.
Richardson, the incumbent congresswoman, not only went along with that edict, she cited it during her opening statement to object to a man with a camera on a tripod making a video recording of the proceedings.
LBReport.com has learned that the man is the deputy press secretary of the Star Parker campaign. The next day he alleged that a LBLWV representative asked him for his voice recorder, which he gave to her—and as of Saturday afternoon it had not been returned.
LBReport.com contacted Richardson and asked her whether her campaign had sought a ban on recordings and photos. Richardson said it was her understanding that those are part of the rules of the organizing groups.
