Rep. Andy Harris Threatens Student Journalist With Prosecution Over Oct. 13 Recording
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 15
Rep. Andy Harris Threatens Student Journalist With Prosecution Over Oct. 13 Recording
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 15
Summary
Video from an Oct. 13 post-debate news conference shows Rep. Andy Harris telling University of Maryland student journalist Cat Murphy he would refer her to prosecutors for recording him.
Harris repeatedly claimed Maryland’s two-party consent law barred Murphy from recording without his permission, demanded an officer and said someone should take her camera as other reporters objected that the exchange was in public.
Maryland’s consent rule applies only to private conversations, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and footage of the confrontation quickly drew online ridicule over Harris’s reading of the law.
The University of Maryland journalism school backed Murphy, with Dean Rafael Lorente saying she recorded openly in a public space alongside other outlets and was acting within her legal rights.
Murphy told CNN she had been trying to press Harris on his debate comments about the war in Iran, turning the clash into a broader press-freedom flashpoint for Maryland’s only Republican House member.