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Reporter speaks out after Alameda DA bars her from news conference
Veteran journalist Emilie Raguso said Friday that she's frustrated she was barred from attending a news conference hosted by Alameda County DA Pamela Price.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Veteran journalist Emilie Raguso said Friday that she's frustrated she was barred from attending a news conference hosted by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.
"For them to turn me away from doing that, I think it's really short-sighted and disturbing," said Raguso, the founder and lone journalist with online news site The Berkeley Scanner.
On Wednesday, Raguso showed up at a news conference at Price's Oakland office and was denied access.
"They said they wouldn't - I wouldn't be allowed to attend because I was still ‘under review,’" Raguso said.
"Under review," even though she's a legitimate, award-winning reporter with valid media credentials. She's a former reporter with the online Berkeleyside news site and has a master's in journalism from UC Berkeley.
"To have my status as a journalist questioned was not something I would expect at this point in my career," she said.
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So while KTVU and other media were invited inside for a news conference about victim advocacy, Raguso was stuck in the hallway, behind a closed door.
Raguso says the real reason for her banishment is that Price, a progressive DA who's the target of a recall effort, doesn't like her reporting and is unfairly singling her out.
"I'm not pro-recall, I have not taken a stand on DA Price, I have really taken pains to include her position," she said.
David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition said it doesn't matter if a reporter is from a legacy mainstream news organization, a nascent news site, part of a large group, or a one-person journalist.
"Media is media is media, and the government does not get to decide who is legitimate and who is not," said Loy, who has written two letters to Price saying she has run afoul of the First Amendment.
"If government officials got to decide who gets to come to a press conference based on who's reporting they like, that's not a democracy, that's a police state," he said.
The DA's office described Raguso as an "uninvited person" who didn't have credentials from a news agency with "a management structure and editorial oversight."
In a statement, Price's communications team - made up of former reporters - said, in part, "The Alameda County district attorney’s office requires all media members to have an official press credential issued by a bona fide national news network, local news affiliate, or a long-standing independent news journal."
But this journalist has never had to show an official credential when attending news conferences hosted by Price or her predecessors.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan