City IT director refuses to say which council member wanted publisher’s emails blocked

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — We brought you news Wednesday about emails from the media intentionally being blocked by the City of Shreveport.

Now a Tulane law professor who saw KSLA News 12′s investigation says she’s never seen a city do this before.

“I think it’s very surprising,” said professor Katie Schwartzmann, director of Tulane Law’s First Amendment Clinic.

Self-proclaimed government watchdog John Settle, publisher of Focus S-B and the Inquisitor, said he noticed his emails were not getting through to the city attorney’s office for public records requests or to council members earlier this week.

In an email response to Settle and KSLA News 12, city IT director Keith Hanson admitted to blocking Settle’s emails from reaching anyone on the City of Shreveport domain for the past two weeks and to doing so at the request of a City Council member.

On Thursday, KSLA News 12′s Doug Warner talked on the phone with Hanson.

He still refused to provide the name of the council member or the reason Settle’s emails were blocked.

In Hanson’s most recent email to Warner, he wrote that the block was done in “error.” But when asked what he meant by error, he wouldn’t explain.

Remember, this block was in place for two weeks.

And Hanson’s initial email said it was done on purpose to block Settle across the entire city domain until Hanson could figure out how to limit the block to just the person who requested it.

Our growing interest in this situation is for one reason and one reason only — protecting our rights under the First Amendment to ask questions of city, parish, county and state officials and to hold them accountable, if necessary.

Warner asked Schwartzmann, the Tulane professor, for her thoughts if this was some sort of retaliation.

“One of the things that is very clear under the First Amendment is that the government can’t retaliate against somebody because it disagrees with what they say,” she said. “Meaning, if somebody speaks out or criticizes the government even harshly, the government can’t then take adverse action against them, can’t retaliate against them.”

On the legal side, the professor said, “if a person is blocked unconstitutionally, then a person can file a lawsuit and ask to have the block removed, ask the court to declare it unconstitutional and ask the court to order that the block be removed and that their email access be restored. A person could also potentially sue for money damages depending upon what had happened to them.”

Schwartzmann concluded by saying: “And then, of course, there also is the basic concept of political accountability in terms of the public asking questions about why this happened and how it came to be.”

First by email and then on the phone Thursday, Warner asked Hanson for an interview. Warner still is awaiting permission from the city’s media relations person to do so.

As the Tulane law professor noted to Warner on the phone, it’s our job to ask why.

It doesn’t matter whether you agree with anything Settle prints.

Multiple City Council members — John Nickelson, Grayson Boucher and LeVette Fuller — have all condemned what happened.

Fuller, who is Settle’s council representative with the city, said if it was an intentional block, which the city admits it was, it is unacceptable.

You’re denying access to public records and public officials.

It’s no different than turning off someone’s microphone during public comments just because you don’t like what you’re hearing.

And that makes it more challenging for the public and the media to hold government accountable.

Settle has options, if he chooses, through the courts and in the voting booth.

And we do too through public records requests when we’re denied answers on the phone or via email.

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