Bender quoted in ‘Republic’ article on dog park blogging

<p>Professor <a href="http://apps.law.asu.edu/Apps/Faculty/Faculty.aspx?individual_id=23"><sp… style="color: #810081;">Paul Bender </span></a>was quoted in a recent <em>Arizona Republic </em>article titled “Phoenix panel told not to post about dog park online.” <br /><br />The Dec. 25 article by Emily Gersema discussed the directive from Phoenix staffers that a 73-member committee charged with finding a location for a new dog park should not discuss their meetings and opinions on blogs or Twitter because it might violate the state’s public-meeting laws. Some member of the committee believe the directive violates their free speech. <br /><br />Bender told Gersema that he thought city staff would encourage blogging because it is transparent and provides public information. <br /><br />“My reaction … is that if the blog is open to the public, I don’t think it would violate the open-meeting law,” Bender told Gersema. “The spirit of the open-meeting law is that the committee is not supposed to be getting together in private.”</p><separator></separator><p>Read the article <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/12/25/2010… style="color: #0000ff;">here</span></a>.<br /><br /></p>