S.C. community newspaper group files first criminal charges for violation of state's open meeting law

The first charges under criminal provisions of South Carolina's open-government law have been filed following a complaint from a community newspaper group regarding a secret meeting in Holly Springs. "Judge William H. Womble Jr. found probable cause for violations of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act at a secret meeting June 16 during which Holly Springs fire commissioners voted behind closed doors to terminate Fire Chief Lee Jeffcoat," Jay King reports for Hometown News, which publishes nine weekly newspapers in upstate South Carolina. King was the only reporter present at the June 14 meeting but was ejected from the proceedings despite explaining the open-meetings law to officials there.

In his affidavit describing the event, King asserts "that the commissioners 'willfully' committed a crime against King as a media representative and the citizens of Spartanburg County by violating several provisions of the FOIA, specifically that the commission took a secret vote, that the meeting was not open to the public, that the commission failed to give proper notice, and that the commission failed to take proper minutes of the meeting," King writes. Bill Rogers, the executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, said the signing of the summons for the four public officials at the secret meeting to appear in court was "a historic occasion and will send a strong message across South Carolina." Violating the FOIA is a misdemeanor and is punishable by a $100 fine or up to 30 days in jail for the first offense. (Read more)

The fact that the first criminal charges under the state law came from reporting by a community newspaper wasn't lost on King. "I really don’t want to appear to be tooting my own horn, but it should be remembered that only a community newspaperman found out about the illegal Holly Springs Fire Commission meeting of June 16 and was the only media representative present during that meeting," King wrote in a separate editorial. "Naturally because the issue has created such an uproar, other local print and broadcast media have reported on the situation in Holly Springs to a greater or lesser extent, but the truth of the matter is they will forget about this community once this situation resolves itself. Thereafter, only the community journalist will bother to continue covering commission meetings." (Read more)