Never Mind: Tenn. Lawmakers Drops Call to Bar AP Reporter From House Chamber

(AP) — The House sponsor of a resolution that sought to ban an Associated Press reporter from the chamber withdrew the measure Monday night.

Democratic Rep. Joe Towns of Memphis said he decided to pull the resolution after talking with House leaders.

The sergeant at arms and a state trooper ordered Erik Schelzig to leave the House floor last week after he began taking photos of a collapsed House Speaker Kent Williams, who had fainted as a result of low blood sugar. The Elizabethton independent got up minutes later and resumed presiding over the session about an hour later.

He said he didn't eat breakfast and his blood sugar was low. He was back to work this week.

The resolution said Schelzig hindered "emergency medical personnel from providing necessary medical care" to Williams.

But video footage from a local television station showed Schelzig was actually behind a glass barrier where reporters are required to work.

He has been supported by news organizations and open government advocates — all of whom said he was doing his job.

Laura Leslie, president of Capitolbeat, a national association of statehouse reporters and editors, wrote a letter to the speaker. She said if Schelzig was obstructing medical assistance, the sergeant at arms should have told him to move. But the video and the angle of Schelzig's photo suggest that wasn't the case, she said.

"It would set a very poor precedent if your chamber were to give this measure any consideration, let alone pass it," she wrote. "No reporter should ever be threatened with the loss of credentials for reporting a story that those in power don't like. That may be the norm in dictatorships, but a functional democracy requires zealous reporting about public officials within the limits of the law."

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government agreed Schelzig "did no harm" and that his action "violated no rules of the House of Representatives, including those that govern decorum."

"Passage of this resolution would be inappropriate and unwarranted," the group said in a statement. "It would send a chilling signal to the citizens of this state and jeopardize future coverage and the very freedoms citizens put in their constitution.