Illinois reporter Hank Sanders got a ticket — for asking too many questions.
Officials in Calumet City said Sanders, a Daily Southtown reporter, violated local ordinances by repeatedly asking public employees to comment on serious local flooding problems.
The three notices sent to Sanders referred to the alleged violations as “disruption/obstruction of city employees,” the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.
Southtown is owned by the parent company of the Chicago Tribune.
Sanders reported on Oct. 19 that consultants had told Calumet City officials their stormwater facilities were in poor condition prior to September’s historic rain storm that caused major flooding.
Calumet City (pop. 36,000) is 23 miles south of Chicago and has a large black population.
Sanders continued to focus on the issue and sought comment from city officials after the Oct. 19 story ran.
He especially angered Calumet Mayor Thaddeus Jones.
Jones also served as an Illinois state representative for the 29th district.
Hank Sanders, 23, a reporter for the Daily Southtown newspaper in Calumet City, IL has been ticketed several times by city officials for asking too many questions.hanksanders_/Twitter
“Despite all FOIA requests being met, Hank Sanders continued to contact city departments and city employees by phone and email,” the breach notice citing Jones states. “Despite requests from Calumet City attorneys to stop contacting city departments and employees, Hank Sanders continues to do so.”
Jones did not return calls from The Post Saturday.
He is under federal investigation for tax issues related to his campaign funds, the Tribune previously reported.
Sanders, who is just 23 years old, told The Post on Saturday he was “definitely surprised” by the reaction of Calumet City officials but said being cited would not stop him from doing his job as a reporter.
Calumet Mayor Thaddeus Jones, who is under federal investigation for tax issues related to his campaign funds, is one of the city officials who gave Sanders a ticket. Calumet City/Facebook
“I’m just doing my job and there’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “I am very grateful to my bosses at the Tribune for all their support.”
He also gave a brief description of the situation on his TikTok account, calling it “absurd.”
The breach was “outrageous,” said Tribune Executive Editor Mitch Pugh.
“They represent an ongoing attack on journalists who, like Hank, are guilty of nothing more than engaging in the practice of journalism,” Pugh said.
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago (left), speaks with Rep. Thaddeus Jones (right) on the House floor in 2013.AP
“From places like Alabama to Kansas to Illinois, it seems that public officials have become emboldened to take actions that our society once viewed as un-American. Unfortunately, in our current political climate, uneducated stupidity has become a virtue, not a liability, but the Tribune will vigorously defend Hank’s right to do his job.”
Freedom of the press has come under attack in the US in recent months.
In August, local police raided the offices of the small weekly Marion County Record and its publisher’s home in Kansas with search warrants and seized computers, servers and documents.
The police chief responsible for the raid later resigned after police body camera footage showed him rummaging through material in the newsroom for information about himself.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
