ATLANTA (AP) – A Georgia woman is waging a single-handed fight to promote transparency in local government.
Armed with her video camera, Nydia Tisdale attends public meetings and other events where public officials are speaking to record them and upload the videos to her website.
Media experts and government-transparency advocates say people like Tisdale provide a valuable service in a time when local newspapers with dwindling staffs can’t always staff public meetings. But some public officials don’t appreciate her efforts.
A north Georgia mayor once had her ejected from a city council meeting, though the courts later found that he had violated the state’s open meetings law.
But charges filed after she was expelled from a 2014 Republican campaign rally could land her in prison.