Ashland City Council continues to allow media entry to executive sessions, after two journalists denied

ASHLAND, Ore. —Ashland City Council met Monday to talk about media presence at government meetings. This comes after two journalists were denied entrance earlier this month.

On January 18th, the Ashland City Council held an executive session. Under Oregon statute, journalists can attend.

According to mayor Julie Akins, it was because the city attorney believes it was within her right to not let them attend. The city attorney led a charge to create more restrictive rules around media attendance at Monday’s meeting.

That effort was stopped when the council chose to not adopt the new changes.

“Bring this issue before the council to ask if they would be interested in adopting a policy to try to define what news media is and what a representative of the news media is,” said Ashland City Attorney, Katrina Brown.

Going forward, Akins says reporters can continue to attend executive sessions.

“Because an error was made doesn’t mean we need to create separate legislation to deal with someone’s mistake,” said Akins.