On July 18, 2026, officials of the Haywood County Republican Party — the party chaired by Kim Genova — blocked a credentialed Asheville Citizen Times reporter from a publicly advertised campaign event for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, held at the Waynesville Recreation Center, a facility owned by the Town of Waynesville and paid for by its taxpayers. When the reporter reached Waynesville Town Attorney Martha Bradley by phone and put her on speaker, Bradley explained that public events at town facilities should be open to all members of the law-abiding public. According to the Citizen Times, the officials interrupted her and did not agree; one said he had called 911, and Genova threatened to sue. At the scene, objection was made to the reporter recording without permission — but in a public place, no such permission is required.
This is not a story about one reporter or one candidate. It is a story about a public official reaching for a lawsuit to punish someone for the entirely lawful act of pointing a camera at her in public — and about whether the people of Haywood County get to see and hear the candidates asking for their votes, or whether a party official gets to decide that for them.
What Is Documented
- A credentialed Asheville Citizen Times reporter was blocked from a publicly advertised campaign event for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.
- The event was held at the Waynesville Recreation Center — a town-owned public facility, not a private venue.
- Reached by phone and put on speaker, Waynesville Town Attorney Martha Bradley said public events at town facilities should be open to all members of the law-abiding public. Per the Citizen Times, the officials interrupted her and did not agree.
- Per the Citizen Times, one official said he had called 911, and party chair Kim Genova threatened to sue.
- Reporting describes the incident as part of a broader pattern of restricted press access around the Whatley campaign, including reporters being denied entry and police being called on a journalist at other events.
What the Law Actually Says
You do not need a person’s permission to photograph or film them in a public place. In the United States there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public, which is the entire legal basis for street photography, news footage, and bystander video. That protection is at its strongest, not its weakest, when the person being recorded is a public official carrying out a public role at a public event — courts have broadly recognized a First Amendment right to record officials performing their duties in public.
North Carolina is also a one-party-consent state for audio recording: a person who is part of a conversation may record it without the other party’s permission. A reporter being addressed by officials at a public event is squarely within that rule. And a taxpayer-funded recreation center hosting a publicly advertised campaign event is not the kind of private space where recording can simply be forbidden.
Put plainly: there is no legal claim in “you filmed me in public without my permission.” A threat to sue over it is not a real cause of action — it is a threat, aimed at making a journalist stop doing something the law fully permits. (This is general legal information, not legal advice.)
Why It Matters
Threatening to sue a reporter for filming in public is not a defense of privacy. It is intimidation — an attempt to use the fear of a lawsuit to make a journalist stop doing something the law plainly allows. When an official reaches for that threat rather than simply answering questions, it tells you the goal was never privacy; it was silence.
In my view, it is worse that this happened on taxpayer-owned property, and worse still that it continued after the town’s own attorney was on the line explaining that public events at town facilities are supposed to be open to the public. Calling 911 and threatening a lawsuit to keep a reporter out of a public event is not the conduct of people who believe the rules apply to them. A party confident in its candidate does not need to hide him from a local reporter with a camera.
Leadership means accountability. This happened under the leadership of the Haywood County Republican Party and its chair, Kim Genova. Constituents of every political stripe deserve better than to have their information filtered by whoever happens to hold a party office — and no one should be threatened with a lawsuit for the lawful act of recording a public official in public.
What Should Happen
The Haywood County Republican Party should publicly commit that credentialed local journalists will be admitted to its public events on equal terms, regardless of the outlet they represent or the coverage they have produced. And residents can ask the Town of Waynesville how a group was permitted to bar the press from a town facility after the town attorney, on the phone, said such events should be open to the public.
Take Action
- Contact the Haywood County Republican Party and tell them the public’s access to public events is not optional.
- Register to vote in North Carolina — the surest response to officials who don’t want you informed is an informed vote. (Official NC State Board of Elections.)