Statewide Iowa — The League of Women Voters of Iowa says removing the media from the press benches on the Iowa Senate floor prevent the public from having first-hand knowledge of what’s happening in the Senate.
Terese Grant, the organization’s president, led a rally inside the state Capitol Wednesday.
Linda Serra Hagedorn, past president of the League of Women Voters of Ames and Story County, says the decision by Senate Republicans to restrict the media’s access to the legislative process could escalate into larger attacks on the First Amendment.
Representatives of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and the Iowa Capitol Press Association also spoke at the rally. House GOP leaders allow reporters and photographers who cover the legislature daily into areas called “press benches” on the House floor.
A spokesman for Senate Republicans says the proliferation of non-traditional media and First Amendment concerns make it difficult for the Senate to define media access, so journalists are no longer allowed in workspaces on the Senate floor. One speaker at Wednesday’s rally says reporters are being sequestered in the rafters of the Senate in the upper level of a third floor seating gallery.
