By Kaitlin Ahern
Photograph by Bryan Mitchell © 2008 Associated Press
According to The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, two reporters were banned from a speech given Friday, Sept. 5 by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in Detroit, Michigan.
Kilpatrick was found guilty of a sex scandal with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, Thursday and was announcing his resignation from office. The reporters, M.L. Elrick of the Detroit Free Press and Steve Wilson of WXYZ-TV, were prohibited from entering the conference by the mayor’s security detail, RCFP’s Web site said.
Wilson reported that the police labeled him a ‘security threat’ under the grounds of a previous incident involving the mayor in which he pushed an officer – an incident Wilson claims never actually happened. Elrick said he was physically blocked from entering the room.
The scandal was uncovered in part by a state Freedom of Information Act request by the Detroit Free Press (also see this article) by which the paper gained access to and published documents containing text messages related to the cover up of Kilpatrick’s affair with Beatty. The documents – which a court ruled were indeed public, following a lawsuit – provided enough evidence to charge Kilpatrick with eight felonies, of which he was convicted of two.
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