ATTACKING ACCESS PROBLEMS You and your news organization can minimize restrictions on access to crimes, accidents and disasters. But it is very hard to do this in the middle of an ongoing investigation or rescue. You rarely will accomplish anything by arguing with a police officer at the scene or a shopping center manager concerned that bad publicity will hurt merchants. Your news organization should have a "battle plan" for dealing with such situations before they develop, providing names of police officials and other contacts who may be able to facilitate access to the area and legal advisers who should be called. More importantly, however, you should develop a good working relationship with police officials. If police in your area have press relations guidelines, find out what they say. If police issue press passes and grant access only to reporters who have them, obtain a pass. The plan should tell you what to do if you are ordered to keep out by police or property owners - whether to stand your ground and risk arrest or a suit, or to depart. You should attempt to gather certain information to help editors and your news organization's lawyers resolve the problem. If you are ordered by officials to leave the scene of an event try to determine whether: The event is taking place in a public forum, on non-public-forum public property or private property. Any restrictions have been placed on general public access to the area. The event involves a significant threat to public safety. If such a threat exists, police may argue later that they ordered you to leave for your own or the public's protection. The restrictions will be lifted shortly. A court is more likely to rule that access limitations were reasonable if they were of short duration. (C) 1997 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced without the written permission of the Reporters Committee. Printed copies of this guide are available through our online order form.