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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

That’s the first amendment of the United States Constitution.

A member of the media was escorted from a football championship on Saturday because he was taking pictures of the young athletes’ pinnacle game of the season.

Why?

The Atmore Advance was present while Willam Reynolds of NorthEscambia.com was escorted out of Flomaton High School’s football stadium.

An official with the ERC football league asked Reynolds if he would only post a couple of photos with his newspaper article, and no photo gallery because a private photographer’s company was on the premises selling photos of action shots.

Reynolds said he will be posting a photo gallery, along with the article, describing the day’s action because this is what we do as journalists.

Then a short time later, Reynolds was escorted by Flomaton police out of the stadium, all the while documenting the scene as he went.

Reynolds, a photographer for NorthEscambia.com, wrote an editorial about the events at the game, which was posted the next day. The article can be found on the website’s editorial section.

We, The Atmore Advance, think it’s wrong for anyone to limit the work of a free press, and we hope the ERC board will change its policies in regard to news media coverage, if a private photographer is selling pictures.