House mutes hearings

The Ohio House’s initial hearings on legislation requiring fetal remains to be buried or cremated were surprisingly low key, with little in the way of vitriol or heated discussion.

I would expect that to change in coming weeks, if the legislation moves quickly through the General Assembly – people on both sides of the issue tend to react when there’s talk of tossing babies into landfills – so we’ll leave that debate for another day.

But the hearing did prompt a concerned letter from the ranking Democrat on the Health and Aging Committee that merits attention.

Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, was responding to a decision by the chairwoman of the panel to allow only credentialed news media the privilege of recording the committee hearing.

While Ohio House and Senate committee hearings are considered public sessions, and anyone can sit and listen to the proceedings, there are limits on photographs and audio and video recordings.

Anyone wanting to record has to fill out paperwork in advance, and such activities are left to the discretion of the chairman or chairwoman.

There have been occasions in recent years when Statehouse reporters have been blocked from recording, but those instances are rare.

Instead, legislative leaders generally allow credentialed media to record hearings but make it clear that all others are not.

WRONG-HEADED APPROACH

It’s an odd and wrongheaded approach, particularly considering lawmakers’ continuing refusal to broadcast hearings using existing equipment and systems. (House and Senate sessions and meetings of the two chamber’s finance committees are the exceptions, with recorded footage available for review.)

The issue came to a head for Antonio when NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio submitted a request to record the Health and Aging Committee hearing on the fetal remains legislation.

The group, which has been vocal in its opposition to Republican-backed abortion-related law changes, submitted a request to record a few days prior. But on the day of the hearing, its members and others were blocked from recording.

There were plenty of credentialed media in the room with the cameras running, however, including a couple of TV stations, public radio folks and me. (I posted shaky video of all of the discussion of the fetal remains bills, which anyone can watch online at their own convenience.)

Antonio is right to question why others aren’t allowed to record. It’s a silly policy to block the public from recording public meetings in a public building.

Unless they’re being disruptive, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, Ohio Right to Life and anyone else in attendance should be allowed to take pictures and record video and audio of their government in action.

“As an integral part of the democratic process, I believe that legislative committee hearings should be open to all Ohio citizens and the organizations they support,” Antonio said in a released statement. “Changing the rules in the middle of the game in order to shut out certain groups with which one may disagree restricts every citizen’s right to know how their government is working. Perhaps if the Ohio Legislature opened up our committee hearings and live-streamed them as we do our legislative sessions, rules to prohibit or limit video recordings would be irrelevant.”

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.