Governor kills bill to broaden media contact with prisoners

SACRAMENTO (AP) Saying it would give the news media ``special
access'' to prison information, Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday vetoed
legislation that would overturn his administration's restrictions on
inmate interviews.

``The First Amendment does not guarantee the press a constitutional
right of special access to information not available to the general
public, nor does it cloak the inmate with special rights of freedom of
speech,'' the Republican governor said in his veto message.

But news media representatives said the veto would hurt the public by
limiting its ability, through journalists, to know what takes place
behind prison walls.

The public interest

``Although there may not be a constitutional right to access specific
sources, certainly it is in the public's best interest to allow for
monitoring of its most important institutions,'' said Jim Ewert, legal
counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

Wilson rejected a bill by Sen. Quentin Kopp, ISouth San Francisco,
that would overturn regulations under which the Department of
Corrections refuses to arrange oneonone interviews with prisoners
for reporters.

What reporters can do

Reporters can question inmates they encounter at random during prison
tours, they can ask prisoners to call them collect or they can try to
visit them during regular visiting hours. But they are not allowed to
take pens, notebooks, cameras or tape recorders to those visits.

The bill also would have made written correspondence between prisoners
and reporters confidential.