Panel discusses degradation of first amendment in journalism

09/23/08 - The National Press Club, which held its second forum at the University of Rhode Island last night, discussed the first Amendment and how its role in society has been changed in recent years.Titled, "What Happened to the First Amendment during the Bush Administration," the forum topic ranged from alleged direct violations of the First Amendment by the Bush administration to local grievances. The effects of 24-hour news channels and how they are changing the perception of news was also discussed.

Panelists included Steven Brown, director of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union; Jim Taricani, a reporter for WJAR NBC Channel 10; Robert Flanders, former Rhode Island Supreme Court Associate Justice, law professor and partner at Hinckley, Allen & Snyder; and Linda Lotridge Levin, chairwoman of the URI Journalism Department.

The main topic discussed was the impact President Bush's administration had on the First Amendment. Levin cited a recent example in which police arrested protestors and a news crew covering the protestors at the Republican National Convention earlier this month.

She said even though they were acting peacefully, the protestors and the news crew were forcibly subdued and taken into custody for rioting and obstruction of an officer.

The news crew and protestors were later released, but Levin pointed out that they were denied their constitutional right of free speech, public assembly and petitioning and protesting grievances of the government.

Flanders elaborated later on that topic, explaining that there is a manual sent to every public event President Bush attends. He explained the manual's instructions in dealing with demonstrators.

"There are several ways in advance a person can prepare a site to minimize demonstrators," he said. "First work with the secret service, have them ask local police to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site."

The next rule was the formation of what the manual called "rally squads," in which a group of event supporters disseminate into the crowd and drown out the demonstrators. As a last resort, the police are authorized to remove demonstrators.

"I sometimes go to sleep at night thinking that we are slowly moving to become the Soviet Union," said Levin. "I just worry that the real goal of this administration has been to close down any kind of news coverage concerning this country, and this reminds me a lot of the old Soviet Union."

Another topic discussed involved the delicate balance the First Amendment holds between other rights in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Robert Flanders said that there are many rights that can sometimes conflict with the first amendment, including the right to a fair trial, right to subpoena and cross examine witnesses and national security reasons.

"So when we talk about the first Amendment, you have to remember that important as it is, it exists in a constellation of other rights, all of which are terribly important," said Flanders. "Often they are clashing with some of the other rights."

Jim Taricani discussed his personal experience with such a matter, and how after refusing to identify a confidential source, he was put on house arrest for six months. Were he not in poor health, the court would have given him six months in jail, doing for what he considered at the time, to be his duty as a journalist.

"There was a federal investigation into corruption in the Providence city hall, nicknamed operation 'Plunderdome," Taricani said. "In the course of that investigation a cooperating witness made a series undercover videotapes [displaying] instances of public corruption in Providence."

He explained that these tapes were sealed and not allowed to be on public record, but later a confidential source released one tape to him showing a critical scene in which Frank Corrente, a top aid to former Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci, was taking a bribe from an undercover FBI agent. He was anxious at first to air the tape because the government issued a statement that the videotapes would not be released on public record after the trial.

"This was a little unusual for our criminal justice system," he said. "Once something is entered into a [court] exhibit and accepted as evidence it becomes public."

Because of this apparent government secrecy, Taricani aired the tapes and was eventually put under house confinement for not releasing the identity of his confidential source and doing what he considered, at the time, to be his duty and responsibility as a journalist.

"We still did what we thought was the public's interest to see what the government was doing," said Taricani. "To see this most vivid and blatant example of public corruption."

Such cases are examples of the level of commitment professional journalists hold when they take a story that may come with a price.

Taricani had the financial backing of NBC, through which he was able to pay enormous court fines; $1,000 a day for 85 days until he was formally charged with criminal content. He said that a smaller news company or citizen journalist would probably not be able to hold out to keep a confidential source's identity hidden.

Citizen journalists and bloggers was another topic that induced lengthy discussion among the panelists, in which they discussed the dangers of either being a blogger or being a new site that uses blogs for content.

Citizen journalists are not trained to check their sources, and this makes them extremely vulnerable to libel.

"Most media outlets rely more and more on blogs, or citizen journalists," Levin said. "And this bothers me, a lot. They're running the risk of [incurring] libel cases."