wfn.org | Proposal Would Allow Small Groups to Exclude Media and Visitors

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

18-October-1999 
99348 
 
    Proposal Would Allow Small Groups 
    to Exclude Media and Visitors from Meetings 
 
    News panel acts to provide a `safe space' 
    for discussion of personal, intimate matters 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A news advisory panel is recommending a policy change 
that would permit small groups to close their meetings to onlookers and to 
the media for the sake of participants who disclose intimate details of 
their faith and life. 
 
    That recommendation is one of several proposed revisions of media 
guidelines of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that concern non-business 
meetings. They were crafted by the Advisory Committee for the News, which 
oversees the work of the Presbyterian News Service. 
 
    The closed-meeting proposal would apply to gatherings of groups that 
are related to the General Assembly Council (GAC) where no official church 
business is done. It is intended to shield participants from the risk of 
having intensely personal information made public. 
 
    "To deny that safe space where they can (discuss personal experiences) 
without fear of having it told to parents and church family and the world 
is imperative," said the Rev. Joanne Hull, a North Carolina pastor and a 
member of the committee. 
 
    "They don't want reported in the media some experiences that they might 
share about their own life and person," Hull said last week during a 
two-day meeting of the committee at the Presbyterian Center. The proposed 
revisions will be presented in February to the GAC's executive committee, 
and would take effect only after being approved by the GAC. The news 
committee is recommending that the policy also be approved by the General 
Assembly (GA), which would give it wider application. 
 
    The proposal - which does not define a small group - says that 
participants in such groups may exclude the media and observers from "small 
groups whose purpose is the sharing of personal issues of faith and life." 
The current guidelines require only that reporters obtain permission from 
speakers before using potentially sensitive quotes. 
 
    "The (proposed) policy accommodates the two positions that the 
committee sought to reconcile, namely the church's need to conduct its 
business in the open for purposes of accountability, and also to provide a 
safe space at certain times for people to explore personal issues of life 
and faith," said Gary Luhr, associate director of the Office of 
Communication, which includes the Presbyterian News Service. 
 
    "While some might feel it does not go far enough in one direction or 
the other, I believe it is a workable compromise." 
 
    All the proposed changes were approved unanimously, including one that 
specifies that the guidelines apply to representatives of "both church and 
public media, including print, electronic and photographic journalists." 
Also passed was a provision that media representatives "may not speak or 
actively participate in any portion of the gathering, unless invited." 
 
    The revisions came about after the GAC's executive committee asked the 
news committee to revisit the denomination's Open Meeting Policy to 
determine whether it applies to non-business church gatherings. The review 
was prompted in part by the exclusion of the media from nearly all of last 
summer's "Leadership Event" of the National Network of Presbyterian College 
Women, and in part by a proposed media policy recently drafted by the 
Presbyterian Women for that group's 2000 Churchwide Gathering next summer. 
 
    The GA enacted the Open Meeting Policy in 1989. The policy applies to 
meetings of the GA and of the GAC and of entities related to them. It 
requires that all meetings of these entities and associated work groups be 
open to media representatives and the public, except when the subject of 
the meeting relates to property negotiation, personnel, litigation and 
security, at which time meetings may be closed. 
 
    Other proposed changes would: 
 
      * Require visitors who attend non-business meetings to identify 
themselves by wearing name tags; 
      * Require that visitors be registered for such events; 
      * State that all provisions of the policy apply "equitably to all 
persons and groups"; 
      * Add a sentence to the Open Meeting Policy indicating that separate 
guidelines apply to non-business gatherings; 
      * Change the policy's name from "Media Guidelines for Non-Business 
Gatherings" to "Media and Visitor Policy for Non-Business Gatherings"; 
      * Make the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly responsible for 
resolving questions about the application and interpretation of the new 
policy.   

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