Arguments were to begin today, July 17, in California’s Third Appellate District Court of Appeal in the lawsuit filed against the Sacramento News & Review by former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
In 2015, when the newspaper filed public-information requests seeking emails regarding city staff’s involvement with Johnson’s personal work with the National Conference of Black Mayors, the mayor sued.
“The News & Review is asking the court to reverse a lower court ruling that the newspaper is not entitled to attorney’s fees for the cost of responding to the mayor’s lawsuit against the newspaper when we pursued a public information request,” wrote Jeff vonKaenel, president, CEO and majority owner of the News & Review newspapers in Sacramento, Chico and Reno.
“This case is critical for journalism,” vonKaenel wrote. “If the lower court ruling holds, then any politician with considerable resources faced with a public information request could just play a game of legal-fees chicken. If the media or a concerned citizen was unable to pay the legal fees necessary to pursue the case, they would have to give up.”
CNPA joined 14 other media organizations on a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of The News & Review.
