{"id":17529,"date":"2016-10-14T08:12:29","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T12:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=17529"},"modified":"2016-10-19T17:26:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T21:26:31","slug":"visiting-nydia-tisdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/visiting-nydia-tisdale.html","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Nydia Tisdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 2016-10-19:<\/strong> And we asked Nydia to speak directly through YouTube<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nHere’s Nydia Tisdale with her picture on the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.\r\n\r\n\"Front<\/a>\r\nGretchen and I dropped in on Nydia Sunday afternoon in Roswell, GA.\r\nNeedless to say, we support Nydia.\r\nShe usually doesn’t even provide commentary with her video reports,\r\nyet when videoing public meetings she’s repeatedly faced obstruction \r\nfrom people who don’t seem to know the First Amendment, nor even the Four Amendment, much less Georgia’s Open Meetings Law.\r\n

\r\nChris Joyner, AJC, 6 October 2016,\r\n\r\nGa. citizen journalist faces possible jail time<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“The idea that criminal charges can stem from free speech and\r\nFirst Amendment activity seems to undermine the entire premise on\r\nwhich our country was founded,” said Hollie Manheimer,\r\nexecutive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, which\r\nlast year gave Tisdale its annual Open Government Hero Award.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Free speech and free press rights are critical to an open\r\ncommunity, and it is problematic on many levels when unjustified\r\ncriminal charges are the response,” Manheimer said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"Front<\/a>\r\n
\r\nNydia Tisdale, left, consults with attorney Bruce Harvey at a hearing in Dawsonville Oct. 4, 2016. CHRIS JOYNER \/ CJOYNER@AJC.COM \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\nIn an era of shrinking journalistic resources, Tisdale is an\r\nimportant piece in holding the powerful accountable.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"With<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNydia won both of her cases against the City of Cumming, Georgia\r\nfor ejecting her from a public meeting (one is in appelate court).\r\nShe should win this one, too.\r\n

\r\nThe AJC story ends with Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and\r\nthe local county Republican party chair:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nOnce he got the mic, Olens protested Tisdale’s removal. “What\r\nare we saying here that shouldn’t be on film?” he said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLinda Clary Umburger, then chairwoman of the Dawson County\r\nRepublican Party, followed Wooten and Tisdale into the barn to voice\r\nher objection.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“I am sorry that people are treating you this way. This is\r\nwrong,” she said in Tisdale’s shaky video.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nReached by telephone, Umburger said she still feels that way and she\r\nblames herself for not taking a stronger stand in the moment.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Out of fear and shock, I left Nydia in a room with men. As a\r\nwoman I should have stayed there and I didn’t,” she said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIt wasn’t “men” who did this: it was specific individuals.\r\nFirst they came for the citizen journalist, and you did nothing, chairwoman and AG.\r\n

\r\nThursday, October 13th 2016, Nydia videoed\r\nthis year’s Georgia First Amendment Foundation Charles L. Weltner Award Banquet<\/a>.\r\nLast year she was their\r\n\r\n2015 Open Government Hero<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nI was surprised to find Nydia is not actually ten feet tall, as she sometimes appears\r\nto be.\r\nShe modestly dismissed that thought.\r\nI asked her to keep up the good work.\r\nMore about her on the LAKE blog<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>\r\n

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today<\/a>!<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update 2016-10-19: And we asked Nydia to speak directly through YouTube. Here’s Nydia Tisdale with her picture on the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gretchen and I dropped in on Nydia Sunday afternoon in Roswell, GA. Needless to say, we support Nydia. She usually doesn’t even provide commentary with her video reports, yet when […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,8,20],"tags":[8736,6671,9475,9476,9478,1153,7765,7841,7842,1273,6660,9473,8701,8030,9472,8702,8710,9477,12,7,46,2390,5239,1096,9474,6],"class_list":["post-17529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-georgia","category-law","tag-activism","tag-bill-of-rights","tag-bruce-harvey","tag-burts-pumpkin-farm","tag-clint-bearden","tag-corruption","tag-david-perdue","tag-dawson-county","tag-dawsonville","tag-first-amendment","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-georgia","tag-hollie-manheimer","tag-journalism","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-linda-clary-umburger","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nathan-deal","tag-nydia-tisdale","tag-ralph-hudgens","tag-sam-olens","tag-tony-wooten","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-4yJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17529"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17658,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17529\/revisions\/17658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}