RICHMOND, Va. -- For decades, reporters in Virginia have been allowed to sit on the Senate floor so they could fully see the arm-twisting and other interactions among lawmakers. That changed last week: Journalists arrived to find their work tables removed, with security guards telling them they would be relegated to an upstairs visitors' gallery.
That gallery offers only a partial view of what's happening, farther away from the conversations that typically take place. Routine access has been blocked in a similar manner in Missouri, and now media groups are condemning the moves and asking lawmakers to reconsider.
The new rules in Virginia were approved by the Senate's Republican majority, led by top-ranking Sen. Tommy Norment. He has steadfastly declined to say what prompted the new rules.
Norment has had a frosty relationship with the media for years, and he has been the subject of numerous articles looking at his finances and government-related side jobs. The chill worsened last year when several media outlets publicized details of an affair Norment had with a lobbyist. The details were made public when one of Norment's former law clients was convicted of trying to blackmail Norment.
Virginia is the birthplace of the constitutional right to a free press, dating to the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights.
"There really is some irony in the fact that a politician in the state of Virginia is limiting press access," said New Mexico State University professor Roger Mellen, a scholar on the origins of free press in Virginia.
Though many states allow it, there is no constitutional guarantee that the media have access to the floor of legislative chambers, which are entitled to set their own rules, said Brett Johnson, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism who specializes in First Amendment theory.
But "if the letter of the First Amendment isn't being violated here, certainly the spirit of the First Amendment is," Johnson said.
The Missouri Senate recently voted 26-4 to change rules that for decades have allowed reporters to work from a 10-seat table on the Senate floor. Reporters will be moved by March 29 to a renovated visitors' gallery overlooking the chamber, where large columns obstruct a clear view.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ron Richard, a Republican, said he initiated the move because some reporters "have violated their code of ethics" in recent years by tweeting private discussions they overheard on the Senate floor.
"The question here is not so much access vs. not access, but it's quality of access and what does the public lose out by the press not having this higher quality of access?" Johnson said.
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