The Associated Press has picked up the story that Kentucky state Rep. Kathy Stein (D-Lexington) is introducing legislation to prevent Governor Fletcher (or any successors) from using politically-motivated censorship on government computers to selectively block access to blogs and other Web sites.  Progressive States has been supporting the legislators there and you can read more here.

But the background is this:

With Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher under indictment for corruption scandals in his administration, local blogger Mark Nickolas of BluegrassReport.org helped drive coverage of the corruption and  became a respected local source for national media covering the scandals.  But then state employees found they were unable to access BluegrassReport.org the day after Mark was quoted in the New York Times-- with other blogs soon blocked, even though other media were not.

Supported by Public Citizen, Mark Nickolas is bringing a lawsuit to protect his First Amendment interests.

And today, Rep. Kathy Stein, joined by State Treasurer Jonathan Miller and Progressive States David Sirota announced that legislation will be introduced that, while protecting the ability of state agencies to prohibit employees from using their work computers inappropriately, will also require any restrictions to be done in a viewpoint neutral way and follow fair procedures for the employees involved.  “This common sense bill respects workers and taxpayers and it prevents politically motivated censorship,” said Rep Stein. “We need to make sure that we aren’t blocking sites because of their political viewpoints.”

Progressive States has an online petition where you can help send a message in support of the legislation, both to Gov. Fletcher and to other leaders around the country against political censorship. The goal is to introduce similar legislation, so signing up will also help us identify activists who can help support campaigns in other states.

In his remarks at today's press conference, Progressive States' David Sirota pointed out that Fletcher's actions are part of a trend of rightwing politicians seeking to restrict speech by their opponents, especially public employees.

His moves to limit workers' rights, control access to information like a tyrant and consolidate power follow similar moves by his right-wing cronies.   For instance, Missouri's Matt Blunt and Indiana's Mitch Daniels - another corrupt Washington-politician-turned-governor - terminated collective bargaining rights in their state workforce. Similarly, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour - a Washington corporate lobbyist turned governor - has pushed legislation to eliminate existing civil service protections so he can consolidate his political power. This, of course this says nothing of the Bush administration's aggressive efforts to limit the public's access to basic information, even spending taxpayer money on studies of how to hide more previously public information.

Helping the campaign is one way to help fight this trend at the state level.