Kudos to legislators who back access bill
Well, finally, some heartening news.
It's good to know there are legislators in our midst who have some common sense. It's comforting -- to us, certainly, but we hope to all of you as well -- that there also are legislators who care about press freedoms and access issues.
Very comforting.
As we've discussed in this space previously, there's a bitter dispute going on these days between Illinois newspapers and the Illinois High School Association over our ability to cover championship athletic events.
The IHSA says our photographers can't cover events unless we give up the right we always have had to sell reprints of photos to these games.
We say, we've always sold these pictures, more as a community service than as a significant revenue producer. The revenues from these sales are negligible, not enough to pay anywhere near the costs of covering the events. But more to the point, the pictures we take are our property, taken in these cases on public property, and the IHSA should have no right to control what we do with them. And it should have no right to say we can't make them available to athletes, parents, friends and other relatives who solicit us for them.
Because of this dispute, the IHSA blocked our access to the state football championships a few months ago. And as the winter sports championships have begun, the organization has done the same with those.
It's unconscionable and outrageous.
In response, legislation has been introduced in the General Assembly that would prohibit the IHSA or any public school from infringing upon the news media's coverage of school sporting events and other extracurricular competitions.
We surveyed suburban legislators to see what they thought about the bill, and here's the comforting part: There's a lot of support.
The following state representatives from our area already have endorsed the legislation: Mark Beaubien, Linda Chapa LaVia, Jack Franks, Paul Froehlich, Carolyn Krause, James Meyer, Rosemary Mulligan, Ruth Munson, JoAnn Osmond, Harry R. Ramey Jr., Ed Sullivan Jr. and Michael Tryon.
The following state senators have: Dan Cronin, Kirk Dillard, Susan Garrett, Dan Kotowski, Terry Link, John Millner, Matt Murphy and William E. Peterson.
To all of them, we extend our appreciation. It's an important bill, and they deserve kudos.
Several other area legislators are leaning toward endorsement, including Fred Crespo, Sandra Pihos, Dennis Reboletti and Angelo "Skip" Saviano.
By the time the bill comes for a vote, we hope they come on board. In fact, by the time the bill comes for a vote, we hope we'll be able to say that the suburban legislative delegation was unanimous in its support.