The Gagging of America

View the recording.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has repeatedly told businesses that it’s illegal to enforce blanket “gag rules” that forbid employees from speaking to the media. So why do so many of them still do it?

In this training session, we’ll help journalists:

• explore what, if anything, can be done to improve journalists’ access to rank-and-file workers at the nation’s most influential companies
• discuss the latest NLRB and court rulings
• examine how you might be able to use them to pry loose more information on your beat

Facilitator:
Henry Dubroff, founder and editor of Pacific Coast Business Times; chair of SABEW’s First Amendment Committee

Speaker:
Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director and co-chair of the American Bar Association Free Speech and Free Press committee

Interviewer:
Matt Drange, senior correspondent of Business Insider and SABEW’s 2019 winner of the Larry Birger Award

SABEW’s First Amendment Committee is dedicated to helping protect press freedoms. This committee is vigilant in its role as a watchdog over government agencies, working to ensure that journalists – and all citizens – have access to accurate, relevant government-supported data. The committee regularly issues statements in support of press freedom and for sufficient funding of government-collected and issued information. It engages government officials, private economists, watchdogs, other stakeholders and the public on the importance of robust and transparent economic and financial data as well as on the mission of business and financial journalism more broadly.