U. of California Regents Bar Filmmaker, Drawing Protests

A documentary filmmaker was barred from bringing his camera into a public meeting of the University of California’s regents last week, and a state senator wants to know why.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the filmmaker, Ric Chavez, did not know that state law allows anyone to film public meetings of state bodies. He e-mailed the university’s public-information office for permission to film Thursday’s meeting and was shut out because he had no press credential.

Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco who heads the Senate’s committee on public-records and open-meetings laws, wrote to the university’s president, Mark Yudof, asking why university policy “is in complete contradiction to state law.” Liz Enochs, president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter, also wrote — in her case, to the regents — to protest the decision.

The San Francisco Chronicle earlier reported that the university had questioned Mr. Chavez about the content and purpose of his film, and had asked for his full name as a condition of access, also in apparent violation of the state’s open-meetings law.

University officials did not immediately respond to the senator and journalists.

But Charles Robinson, vice president and general counsel, said in a statement that “the University of California strives to operate in as transparent and open a manner as possible.”