The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press along with 21 other media groups filed a brief last week in support of efforts to overturn North Carolina’s ag-gag law, which criminalizes the collection and sharing of information about farm business practices with reporters or advocacy groups.
The law went into effect in 2016 and is currently facing a legal challenge from several environmental and animal welfare groups. The Reporters Committee argues that the law would punish whistleblowers who attempt to share information with the media about conditions on farms.
Ag-gag laws have been passed in ten states and proposed in many others. The laws began to materialize after animal welfare groups used undercover investigations to reveal animal abuse on livestock farms. The laws vary in their approaches but seeks to block the reporting and sharing of internal information about farms’ business practices. North Carolina’s law is broader than those in other states because it applies to all workplaces, not just farms.
The Reporters Committee objects to North Carolina’s ag-gag law on the grounds that it “dramatically chills reporter-source communications and obstructs journalists’ ability to report on matters of public concern, including but not limited to food safety, the treatment of workers at agricultural facilities, and the treatment of animals at research facilities.”
“Members of the public cannot themselves monitor all of the institutions that affect their lives; they rely on members of the news media to keep them informed about matters implicating health, safety, and public welfare,” the brief continues.
The plaintiffs on the suit challenging the North Carolina law include People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Inc., Center for Food Safety, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Farm Sanctuary, Food & Water Watch, Government Accountability Project, Farm Forward, and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.