Running a successful newspaper means building and maintaining a working relationship with the law enforcement agencies in the area, and we are pleased to report that we have largely been successful at building those ties across the CSRA. The lone exception has been the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office under the leadership of Richard Roundtree.
The Augusta Press followed the protocol set forth by the RCSO to receive press releases and public notices. Two members of the news/editorial staff made separate written requests for the information. To date, we have not received any such notices from the RCSO.
It is not that nothing has been happening at the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office the last couple of months. They are sending out public notices. They are just not sending them to The Augusta Press.
When we inquired into the matter, we were told that Sheriff Roundtree does not recognize The Augusta Press as a legitimate media organization.
Further inquiries revealed that the Sheriff Roundtree has personal issues with one of our columnists. An informed source confirmed this and even went on to tell our representative that if we were to sever ties with the columnist in question, then the Sheriff will cooperate with our newsroom.
We want to stress that we do not have an axe to grind with the sheriff. However, it is a chilling notion that a constitutional officer would dare try to influence the staffing of a media organization.
We believe legal precedent is on our side in this.
In Abella v. Simon, the11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that government agencies cannot discriminate by picking and choosing which media organizations with which they will cooperate. If they send public notices to one newsroom, then they have a legal obligation to send those notices to all newsrooms that serve the community.
The Sheriff has no obligation to talk to us. He does, however, have the obligation to send public notices to our newsroom if he sends them to any other news medium.
The mission of The Augusta Press is to hold public officials accountable. With this editorial, we remind the Sheriff that he is responsible to the public. The public has a right to know what our government officials and agencies are doing, and we will protect that right.
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