LEXINGTON — The Lexington mayor’s office says it maintains a press distribution list but does not have written criteria governing who is added or removed, according to an email response this week from Mayor Linda Gorton’s spokesperson — a discussion prompted by a federal lawsuit in London, K entucky, alleging retaliation and viewpoint discrimination against an independent journalist. Susan Straub, communications director for Mayor Linda Gorton, said she keeps “a list” to distribute information to reporters and assumed other LFUCG divisions do as well. But she said she was not aware of any written criteria across city government that establishes content-neutral standards for those lists. “I’m not aware of any written criteria. I don’t have any,” Straub wrote, responding to questions about whether LFUCG has standards for media distribution lists used to send press releases, advisories or incident updates. The questions were prompted by a recent federal lawsuit filed against the City of London, where an independent journalist alleges he was removed from a police media distribution list in retaliation for critical coverage and was restricted from commenting on city social media posts. Asked whether independent journalists are treated differently than legacy news outlets in Lexington, Straub wrote: “Not treated differently by me.” Straub also said she was not aware of any written guidance for city staff on how to respond to reporters who may be critical of LFUCG or Mayor Gorton. “Not that I’m aware of. I don’t have any,” she wrote. However, Straub acknowledged her office may change its approach in some circumstances. “If reporting is repeatedly inaccurate then I sometimes route responses through me so I can explain carefully,” Straub wrote. “Government is complicated.” While press distribution list practices appear to vary by office, Straub cited a written city policy governing public participation on official social media pages. “The full social media public comment policy can be found here,” Straub wrote, linking to LFUCG’s published social media public comment policy. That policy describes official LFUCG social media pages that allow public comments as “designated (limited) public forums,” and outlines categories of comments that may be removed, including spam, obscenity, commercial promotions, personal confidential information, and comments that “expressly advocate direct violence or other illegal activity.” The policy also includes a section on questions, concerns and appeals, and describes procedures related to restricting a user’s participation, including blocking. When asked whether LFUCG has a formal appeal process for individuals who believe they have been wrongly excluded from a press distribution list, Straub said no such policy exists in the mayor’s office. “I don’t have a policy in the mayor’s office concerning distribution list,” she wrote. The post Mayor’s office discussed media policies amid London lawsuit appeared first on The Lexington Times. ...read more read less