AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES AND A PINE HILL RESIDENT

General information for UNofficially Winslow vistors.

Video taping of public meetings has previously been addressed in New Jersey several times. In 2007 a Pine Hill, New Jersey resident (Pine Hill borders Winslow Township near Crosskeys road.) , with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union, successfully challenged the Borough of Pine Hill in the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Below are two excerpts from a March 7, 2007 press release.

"Videotaping is an invaluable method of documenting government activities or misconduct," said ACLU of New Jersey Legal Director Ed Barocas. "We are pleased that the Supreme Court recognized that American freedom and democracy depend on the people having a right to access government information."

The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that videotaping public meetings is part of the common law right to obtain public information.

Chief Justice James R. Zazzali, writing for the court, explained: "Openness is a hallmark of democracy -- a sacred maxim of our government -- and video is but a modern instrument in that evolving pursuit. ...The use of modern technology to record and review the activities of public bodies should marshal pride in our open system of government, not muster suspicion against citizens who conduct the recording."