Debbie Crane said the Carolina Journal shouldn't have to ask to get its calls returned.

Gov. Mike Easley acknowledged last week that his press staff doesn't return calls from the newspaper because the governor's staff considers it an advocacy group. Crane, a fired spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said advocacy group or not, the journal and every other member of the public has a right to public information.

Crane had previously said public information officers for other state agencies were also told not to deal with the Journal, which is owned by the John Locke Foundation.

"The name of those offices for the most part was public information offices or public affairs offices," Crane told N&O reporters today. "That means it doesn't matter who is doing the calling they deserve a call back and they deserve their information."

Crane spoke to N&O staff members today about public records and the best ways to get them from state government.

Easley told Carolina Journal editor Richard Wagner last week that he would have the newspaper removed from the do-not-call-list if the press association would write a letter vouching for the paper. Crane said that should be unnecessary. She allowed that the governor's public information office focuses on the news media, but other offices in state government are supposed to respond to the public.

Full disclosure: Crane signed an affidavit in support of a lawsuit against the governor by news organizations, including The N&O.

Update: The governor's office has directed state public information officers to treat the Carolina Journal the same as other news media, said Dan Gerlach, a senior aide to Easley.

Gov. Mike Easley says he’ll ask his press staff to start treating the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Journal like any other news media outlet from now on.

Easley said Wednesday that he has told his senior staff and spokespeople to cooperate better with the state’s news media to get information to the public.

And Easley said he’d prod them to give equal access to the Journal, which routinely gigs him, reports Matthew Eisley.

In a meeting Easley convened at the Executive Mansion with the head of the N.C. Press Association and the top editors of The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer, and the Carolina Journal, Journal Editor Richard Wagner asked the governor why his press office won’t respond to the publication’s information requests.

“It’s been reported that we were at the top of the do-not-call list,” Wagner said.

Perhaps coincidentally, the conservative Journal regularly publishes investigations critical of Easley, a Democrat, and other people in his administration.

Easley said his press office’s policy is not to respond to information requests from the Journal or other nonprofit advocacy groups, including its liberal counterpoint, N.C. Policy Watch.

Read more after the jump.

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