The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic issued a demand letter to Delaware County Tuesday, Aug. 22 on our behalf, seeking reinstatement of The Reporter as an official county newspaper, and for compensatory and punitive damages. The demand letter also requests that the county rescind any directive restricting communications between county employees and The Reporter on matters of public concern. The Cornell Clinic made clear that its client intends to file suit in federal court and will also seek attorney’s fees and costs if the matter is not satisfactorily resolved within 30 days.
Until its de-designation as an official Delaware County newspaper in March 2022, The Reporter had been publishing the county’s public notices virtually since its founding in 1881. A year after the de-designation, county officials sent an unprecedented letter to us, signed by 39 county officials, in which they demanded that we “make immediate changes” to the coverage of the county. County officials made clear in their letter that the de-designation was tied to their view of The Reporter’s coverage, citing to an alleged “flagrant manipulation of facts and the manner in which [the] paper reports county business” as “one of the reasons the Board of Supervisors opted to change the official county paper to the Hancock Herald in 2022.”
Shortly after receiving the county’s letter, we reached out to a number of signatories of the letter to understand why they signed it. Contemporaneous conversations with these county officials demonstrated that many of the signatories to the letter either did not read the newspaper at all prior to the letter being sent or had no issues with its coverage.
Delaware County Attorney Amy Merklen also told The Reporter on June 23 that all communications, whether related to the de-designation or not, must be referred to her office. In our demand letter, we demand the directive prohibiting communication between county employees and The Reporter be immediately rescinded.
Our legal team also made a Freedom of Information Law request to the county several months ago to further understand the motivations for the county’s actions concerning the de-designation and the sending of the March 2023 letter. Delaware County has so far failed to resolve the constructive denial of our request as required.
“Withdrawing government funds from a newspaper in retaliation for coverage critical of public officials clearly violates the First Amendment,” said Heather Murray, Managing Attorney of the Local Journalism Project at the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic. “Blanket restrictions on government employees speaking with the media on any topic of public concern likewise raise serious constitutional concerns and are legally unenforceable.”
A free press is the cornerstone of our democratic system. We remain committed to our mission as a government watchdog and to bringing greater transparency to Delaware County.
Kim and Randy Shepard
* To read the legal demand and supporting documents click here.
