From WFAE 90.7 (9/30/11): UNC-Chapel Hill celebrated its third annual First Amendment Day this week. As the name implies, it was a chance for the university to address the importance of the First Amendment and public records law.
But last spring, a judge found UNC in violation of North Carolina public records law. The school had refused to release records related to investigations of the Tar Heel football program. UNC said it couldn’t release them because of a federal privacy law.
But some media advocates and journalists say that’s a common cop-out from UNC system schools when it comes to records that could make the universities look bad. WFAE’s Michael Tomsic reports.
The Raleigh News and Observer’s executive editor, John Drescher, is no stranger to legal battles. In his office, he takes out a manila folder.
“As you can see here, it’s a couple inches thick,” Drescher says.
A big chunk of that file focuses on UNC-Chapel Hill.