Arkansas

Journalists covering an Arkansas oil spill in a suburban neighborhood said they were threatened with arrests, kicked out of the disaster site and had to seek permission from ExxonMobil to fly over the evacuated area.

An ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Ark., on March 29, causing 22 homes to be evacuated in the small town located north of Little Rock. So far, more than 19,000 barrels of oil have been collected.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a lower court’s decision that the open meetings provisions of the state’s Freedom of Information Act is unconstitutional, stating that questions about how the law applies to changes in technology and other concerns should be taken to the legislature, not the court.

But the Supreme Court also upheld the circuit court’s ruling that local government officials did not violate the Act when an administrator met with city board members in a series of one-on-one meetings.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday expressed frustration that the state's open meetings law contains no definition for what constitutes a public meeting, forcing the court to define the statute's limits each time a new challenge arises.

In oral arguments in McCutchen v. Fort Smith, the central issue in the case is whether an administrator's action of scheduling a series of individual meetings with members of the city's board of directors to discuss a memo he prepared constituted a meeting under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision yesterday confirming that police officers' self-prepared reports – detailing instances where force was used – are subject to public release under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act is heading to the state Supreme Court in what will likely be a legal battle over whether prosecutors can pursue misdemeanor criminal charges for violations of the broadly-worded law.

The case centers around Circuit Judge James Cox's ruling declaring parts of the state’s FOIA unconstitutional. Cox wrote in his decision that the definition of “meeting” and the criminal penalties for violations contained in the law are "unconstitutionally vague."

The Arkansas governor signed late last month an amendment to the state shield law that will protect television and Internet reporters from the compelled disclosure of their sources. The amended act will go into law 90 days after the state legislature officially adjourns.

Faced with newspaper scrutiny, judges in two Arkansas counties have agreed to reopen arrest affidavits in criminal cases -- records that have been automatically sealed for at least 10 years, the Associated Press reports.