The Indiana Publisher

October 2021 Page 6 A free-speech lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana resulted in the suspen- sion of a local mayor's personal Facebook account. The lawsuit was filed in June after Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett blocked a former Franklin resi- dent from his personal Facebook page. The former resident, William "Billy" Reynolds, posted a 92-sec- ond video May 13 of Barnett at a Black Lives Matter rally, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The ACLU argued Barnett used his Facebook page as a tool to communicate about the city and his work as mayor, therefore he cannot restrict the right of the public to see his posts. Barnett identified himself as the mayor on his profile, posted during work hours and posted frequently about happenings in the city, according to the lawsuit. Barnett was commonly tagged by others in his official capacity, and had not taken action to omit other photos of him- self, the lawsuit said. The move violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the ACLU said. Barnett's attorney and the ACLU recently reached a settle- ment, and Barnett deactivated his Facebook account. It is the out- come Barnett wanted, he said. "If we wanted to fight the case, we feel like we could win. But I didn't want to spend taxpayer dollars on this, especially since I didn't want to be on Facebook," he said. —Daily Journal (Franklin) Any staff updates at your paper? Launching an innovative project? Let us know. Email your news to news@hspa.com. Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame induction luncheon postponed until April 2022 News in Brief Mayor settles in ACLU lawsuit about Facebook use The Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame luncheon to induct new members is being postponed until April 9, 2022. After hearing from inductees, board members and supports, reviewing the latest Covid-19 data, and discussing all the options with our colleagues, we feel it is in everyone's best inter- est to again postpone the 55th Induction Ceremony until spring 2022. The new date is April 9, 2022 at the Marriott North at Keystone. If you already have made reservations, you can contact executive director Larry Taylor, injournalismhof@gmail.com. For a list od inductees, visit, https://ijhf.org/ijhf-announces-its- 2020-inductee. — Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame September 2021 Free HSPA of Metzger, associate lecturer in Journalism at Ball State. During her 30-year journalism career, Metzger has served as editor of three newspapers and president and publisher of three others. This year, The Indianapolis Recorder received Madison Smalstig from Indiana University as a Pulliam intern. Smalstig has written more than 140 stories for her college paper, the Indiana Daily Student. She'll be a senior and is majoring in Journalism and Spanish. The Recorder operates with two reporters, so introducing interns into the mix will give the regular staffers an opportunity to work on projects and go a little deeper with their stories, said The Recorder's editor, Oseye Boyd. Boyd said the program will give interns the confidence and tools to do the job at a newspaper. "When I had an internship, it was invaluable to me to get that real- life experience," Boyd said. Ellie Albin is also a Journalism major from IU and will also work this summer for an Indianapolis publication — the Indianapolis Business Journal. Albin, a sopho- more, was editor-in-chief of her high school paper in Fishers, N the Red. Taylor Dixon is majoring in Multimedia Journalism at Franklin College. The senior works for The Franklin and said with reporting she appreciates, "the endless possibili- ties of what a day can bring." Dixon will spend her summer at The Journal Review in Crawfordsville. Brea Haller has served as editor-in-chief of the Indiana Statesman at Indiana State Univer- sity where she's worked for two years. Haller, a senior majoring in Communications, is at the Tribune Star in Terre Haute this summer. Tristan Jackson is the former editor-in-chief at the IDS at IU. The reporter and editor is also an award-winning designer and will be a senior this year majoring in Journalism. Jackson will spend his summer at The Herald-Times (Bloomington). Communications major Sawyer Osmun worked on her student newspaper at Hanover College where she covered the Covid-19 pandemic and athletics. Osman, a senior who is also on Hanover's track and field team, is interning at The Herald Bulletin in Anderson. During her senior year in high school, Tori Smith wrote for the Kankakee Valley Post News in DeMotte. That experience convinced her to continue in journalism: "I saw who and where I wanted to be," Smith wrote in her application. This summer, the Ivy Tech Community College sopho- more will be working at the Rennselaer Republican. Franklin College senior Taylor Wooten has served as co-execu- tive editor of The Franklin newspaper and has also worked for TheStatehouseFile.com. The Multimedia Journalism major will spend her summer at The Daily Journal in Franklin. "I think this group is going to be hugely helpful to the newspapers they represent and will get a great experience because of the gift that the Pulliams and HSPA have given them," Metzger said. "I think they really appreciate what that means." Page 13 May 2021 all of the parts and pieces using InDesign, creating page PDFs and sending them off to our Greencastle office for printing. There is so much more to this side of the industry than I realized, and my love of learning has been one of the things I've leaned on to see me through. Making mistakes is another valu- able part of learning, and while I can sometimes beat myself up too much, I am grateful for the blunders that have taught me what NOT to do. That silver lin- ing is what makes me keep try- ing until I get it right. I will close this column with a quote from the greatest band in the world, the Ramones. The quote is, of course, a lyric and it has almost no bearing on the subject I've been yammering away at, but it's still from the Ramones and therefore still very cool ... "Chewin' out a rhythm on my bubble gum ... the sun is out, and I want some ... it's not hard, not far to reach, we can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach. Up on the roof, out in the street ... down in the playground, the hot concrete ... bus ride is too slow ... driver's got the disco on the radio ... Rock, rock, Rockaway Beach ..." If you ever get sad, or need a reason to jump up and down with a big smile on your face, listen to this song. You can thank me later. Danner Continued from Page 4 There is so much more to this side of the industry than I realized, and my love of learn- ing has been one of the things I've leaned on to see me through. Interns Continued from Page 1 Have access & other legal questions? Contact the HSPA Legal Hotline. HSPA Executive Director & General Counsel Steve Key is available to answer your questions. Email skey@hspa.com or call (317) 624-4427. Look for the Hotline column every month in the Indiana Publisher. Juli Metzger speaks with 2021 Pulliam interns on May 19 at the Pulliam Production Center in Indianapolis. Meetings on spending COVID money might have broken state's Open Door Law St. Joseph County officials this month stopped holding a series of private meetings on the spending of $53 million in federal COVID- 19 relief dollars, after the South Bend Tribune learned the discus- sions likely ran afoul of Indiana's "open-door" law. The group of officials had been holding weekly discussions since late spring to review requests from county departments and out- side organizations for slices of the "American Rescue Plan" money. The group has been assigning the requests as favorable, unfavor- able or no recommendation, and then sending them to the County Council. So far, the group has moved more than $8 million in new spending to the County Council, while holding other funding requests for further deliberations. But after The Tribune argued on Aug. 26 that the small-group discussions must be held in pub- lic, officials decided to end the private meetings, county attorney Jamie Woods said last week. "When we deal with open- door meetings, obviously, they're nuanced, and it's our belief that what the commissioners and coun- cil did was appropriate," Woods said. But out of an abundance of caution, Woods said, they would not be going forward in this for- mat. Experts on public-access law say the committee fell squarely within the requirements of Indiana's open-door law because, by deliberating over the alloca- tion of millions of tax dollars, the officials were taking action on News in Brief News all periodicals The and National Association Comments Regulatory its proposed its performance systems. The the measurement improvement, seeking inclusion its measurements public "This because taxpayer Public Britt, to referee information. Political commentator Abdul- Hakim Shabazz says he was turned away from a news con- ference conducted by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Oct. 14 despite holding media credentials. Shabazz, editor and publisher of Indy Politics and an attorney, received an invitation to the news conference about robocalls and sent back his RSVP in time, according to his column Oct. 14, which raises questions about fair media access. The Indiana attorney general's office did not return an email for comment Oct. 15. Shabazz and Rokita had a civil relationship until a Republican primary debate during Rokita's unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 2018, according to Shabazz's column. When it was announced that Shabazz would be leading the discussion, Rokita at first backed out. He claimed he did not want to participate if Shabazz was the one leading the debate, calling him biased. Shabazz said he was turned away from the Oct. 14 news conference by Rokita's press secretary for not being "cre- dentialed media," despite holding a press badge issued by the Indiana Department of Administration. State and local governments cannot limit or deny public or media access to public forums, according to the Reporter's Committee's First Amendment Handbook. Shabazz wrote in his column: "If I wasn't credentialed media, why did I get a news advisory and a news release? And why would Rokita's office subscribe to my Cheat Sheet (newsletter) if I didn't have some credentials?" — TheStatehouseFile.com Indiana AG news conference dispute raises questions about journalist's access Shabazz Barnett

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