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Newspaper Publisher Says First Amendment Rights Violated, Vows To Sue
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Few journalists ever want to find themselves in the headlines, but that’s exactly what happened a few weeks ago when a North Georgia newspaper publisher was jailed after he filed an open records request. He has since been released, all charges dropped, but the case is still attracting national attention, and raises very serious First Amendment issues. GPB’s Sean Powers reports.
Listen back to our 2015 series by GPB's Sean Powers on the Fannin Focus, and the role of small-town investigative journalism:
May 12, 2015 - The Fannin Focus has been reporting about possible mismanagement of funds by Fannin County recreation director Bernie Hodskins. Hodskins was fired and there are a pair of lawsuits involving Fannin County’s commissioners. May 13, 2015 - Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason is relatively new to journalism and has the added challenge of knowing many of the people he writes about in his paper. We learn how Thomason navigates his role as a watchdog journalist in a small community. Then, host Celeste Headlee speaks with Jeff Sonderman of the American Press Institute about investigative reporting in places where everybody knows your name.
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