Published: February 08, 1999
Last Updated: March 02, 1999
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ASNE on the move

Freedom of Information Committee chair Paul Tash has written leaders of the U.S. Senate, urging them to change their rules and allow  photographers to take still pictures. The Senate already allows a video camera to show sessions in the Senate, and the House allows both video and still photographers.

“In the interests of history, it is vital that still photographers be permitted to record the Senate proceedings in the impeachment trial,” Tash wrote the Senate leadership. “In the interests of journalistic quality, it is imperative that still photographers be permitted to make their own original photographs, rather than adapt images taken from a television recording. In comparison to original photographs, the technical quality of those converted images is extremely poor, leaving newspapers and magazines at a distinct disadvantage in meeting their obligations to readers and citizens.”

In a message to members, Tash urged ASNE members to write editorials and/or contact their own senators. Tash is executive editor and deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.