Calumet City drops citations against Daily Southtown reporter

Calumet City officials have dropped municipal charges against a Daily Southtown reporter they alleged violated local ordinances by seeking comment from public employees on major flooding issues in the area.

The reversal comes just days after the south suburb sent several citations to Hank Sanders, a Southtown reporter whose job includes covering Calumet City.

The Southtown, which is owned by the Chicago Tribune’s parent company, published a story online Oct. 19 and in print Oct. 20 in which Sanders reported that consultants had informed Calumet City officials that their stormwater facilities were in poor condition before September’s historic rains caused flooding.

A day after the story was published online, Sanders continued to report on the issue, drawing complaints from city officials, including Mayor Thaddeus Jones, that he was calling employees to seek comment. Officials mailed Sanders tickets citing him for “interference/hampering of city employees.”

On Monday, Calumet City attorney Patrick K. Walsh sent a Tribune lawyer a letter dropping the citations. Tribune Executive Editor Mitch Pugh said the newspaper is “glad that cooler heads prevailed and Calumet City officials understood the error of their ways and dismissed these charges.”

“We’re glad to see Hank can get back to doing his job serving the readers of the Daily Southtown, and we’ll continue to be vigilant watching how city officials treat him in his capacity of reporter,” Pugh said. “We’ll continue to support our journalists’ right to do their jobs, whether in Calumet City or elsewhere.”

In his letter, Walsh said city employees “have a right to refuse to speak with” Sanders. But, Walsh added: “I understand it would be Mr. Sanders’ position and your argument that he was not harassing anyone. As you know, I was not a witness and have no interest in bickering about it.”

The message from Walsh encourages Sanders to direct his inquiries to the suburb’s spokesperson and concludes: “Mr. Sanders is a nice young reporter and I wish him well with his career.”

Journalists regularly contact public officials to seek comment and context on recent events and information they’ve obtained in an effort to present readers with as full a picture of events as possible. The freedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

On Monday, Sanders was back at work reporting.

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Originally Published: Nov 06, 2023 at 2:50 pm