Chicago-area reporter fined for asking questions to public employees

Illinois journalist Hank Sanders was fined for asking too many questions.

Calumet City officials say 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 refer to the alleged violations as “interference/obstruction of city employees,” the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

The Southtown is owned by the parent company of the Chicago Tribune.

Sanders reported Oct. 19 that consultants had told Calumet City officials that their stormwater facilities were in poor condition before historic September storms that caused major flooding.

Calumet City (population 36,000) is located 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 was published.

It especially angered Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones.

Jones also serves as the Illinois State Representative for the 29th District.

Hank Sanders, 23, a reporter for the Daily Southtown newspaper in Calumet City, Illinois, has been fined several times by city officials for asking too many questions.hanksanders_/Twitter

“Despite all FOIA requests having been completed, Hank Sanders continues to communicate with city departments and employees via phone and email,” the violation notice mentioning Jones states. “Despite Calumet City attorneys’ request to stop calling city departments and employees, Hank Sanders continues to do so.”

Jones did not return calls from The Post on Saturday.

He is under federal investigation for tax issues related to his campaign funds, the Tribune previously reported.

Sanders, who just turned 23, told The Post on Saturday that he was “definitely surprised” by the reaction of Calumet City officials, but said receiving subpoenas would not stop him from doing his job as a journalist.

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Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones, who is under federal investigation for tax issues related to his campaign funds, is one of the city officials who fined Sanders. The City of Calumet City/Facebook

“I’m just doing my job and there’s a lot more work to do,” 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 “ridiculous.”

The violations are “shocking,” said Tribune executive editor Mitch Pugh.

“They represent a continuing 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) while on the House floor in 2013.AP

“From places like Alabama to Kansas to Illinois, it appears that public officials have become emboldened to take actions that our society once considered un-American. Unfortunately, in our current political climate, uneducated buffoonery has become a virtue, not a liability, but the Tribune will vigorously defend Hank’s right to do his job.”

Press freedom has been attacked in the United States in recent months.

In August, local police raided the Marion County Record’s small weekly offices and its editor’s Kansas home with a search warrant and seized computers, servers and documents.

The police chief responsible for the raid later resigned after police body camera footage showed him reviewing material in the newsroom for information about himself.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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