The board of Capitolbeat, the association of statehouse reporters and editors, formally requested Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and Senate Judiciary Committee II Chairman Fletcher Hartsell to drop orders and subpoenas to UNC-TV.

Hartsell wants to compel UNC-TV to air unbroadcast footage of news reports on the controversy involving Alcoa and the proposed Yadkin River Trust bill that Hartsell wants to push through the General Assembly’s short session.

The letter, from Capitolbeat President (and WUNC radio legislative correspondent) Laura Leslie, notes that Hartsell helped draft the state’s press shield law in 1999. This makes Hartsell’s statement Thursday to Greensboro News & Record reporter Mark Binker ? ?We have subpoenaed not just testimony but documents, which we?re entitled to do and as far as I know there?s no privilege in North Carolina as yet? ? particularly puzzling, unless Hartsell was claiming that UNC-TV had not asked for protection under the shield law.

For more on the UNC-TV and Alcoa controversy, go here.