A New York school district started ignoring a local journalist. A letter from RCFP got it to stop.

Journalist Michael Balter had been covering the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District for several months when school officials went silent in the spring of 2024. The school district in Westchester County, New York, which had initially congratulated Balter on the launch of his publication, The Croton Chronicle, had stopped responding to his requests for comment and appeared to have excluded him from its press release distributions. 

To Balter, the snubbing felt like retaliation for his reporting. At the time, he had been reporting on the district’s ethics rules and investigating allegations concerning certain school officials.

“It was never my intention to write only negative stories about anybody or anything in this area, but it was also my intention to do honest and critical reporting,” Balter said. “They stopped cooperating with me. They wouldn’t comment.”

On one occasion, Balter said, the district invited him to a school Veteran’s Day event — but only as a veteran. School officials would not allow Balter to participate as a member of the press. 

In the face of the district’s silence, Balter turned to public records requests to access information. But the local journalist found it difficult to report stories that way. 

Last November, Balter decided to contact the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for help. Through the Reporters Committee’s free Legal Hotline, Balter connected with Annie Seminara, RCFP’s E.W. Scripps Legal Fellow, and explained the difficulties he was experiencing with the school district.

Seminara and Jennifer Nelson, the Reporters Committee’s director of pre-publication review and journalist support, responded by writing a letter in February to the school district that expressed concerns about school officials’ refusal to properly treat Balter as a member of the news media. 

“These actions raise serious First Amendment concerns and are inconsistent with the District’s Media Relations policy,” the letter stated. “[W]e respectfully request that the District commit to providing all members of the press — including Michael Balter and The Croton Chronicle — equal access to press releases and other information issued by the District, starting immediately.”

In a written response, the district denied that its actions raised First Amendment concerns or that they were inconsistent with school policies. However, the district agreed to include Balter in future correspondence with the news media. 

So far, Balter said, the school district has lived up to that pledge. After nearly a year of refusing to comment for his stories, Balter said school officials are once again treating him like a member of the press. He was even able to get comment from the president of the school board and the superintendent, which had not happened before.

“They changed their behavior as a result of the [Reporters] Committee writing that letter,” Balter said. “I’ve been around for a long time. I know that a letter from a lawyer can sometimes make a big difference.”

Balter added that he’s grateful that the Reporters Committee was willing to go to bat for a local journalist like him. 

“[The Reporters Committee] realized the importance of independent journalism. They weren’t just representing the big boys and girls, like The New York Times or The Washington Post,” he said. “The [Reporters] Committee did not hesitate to help me, despite the fact that I’m an independent journalist using blogs and Substack newsletters to do my reporting.”