Study documents commonplace and illegal government policies restricting employee communication with journalists

The anonymous whistleblower who kicked off the Ukraine impeachment investigation has renewed public debate about the role of such sources in a democracy, and has highlighted how government agencies often try to control leaks. Agencies throughout the nation have passed broad policies that try to prevent public employees from speaking to journalists without approval, even though federal courts have repeatedly found such policies unconstitutional.

A new report from the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida documents nearly two dozen cases in which courts have struck down policies in local, state and federal government offices that forbid employees from freely communicating with the press.

“There’s widespread ignorance that public-relations offices have no legal authority to forbid public employees from speaking to the news media," Frank D. LoMonte, director of the center and lead author of the report, said in an introduction. "Whether it’s called a rule or a policy or a handbook, the result has been the same every time an employee has challenged a requirement to get approval before speaking to journalists: The employee always wins and the agency always loses."

"Policies that have been struck down as unconstitutional include a Michigan fire department’s regulation providing that only the fire chief could 'release facts regarding fire department matters, fires or other emergencies to the news media,' and a Connecticut police agency’s policy forbidding officers from making 'official comments relative to department policy' to members of the press or public without approval," says the introduction.

The report explains where the courts tend to draw the line these days for public employees' free speech and provides strategies and best practices journalists can use when challenging gag rules.