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Jim Zachary Published 6:26 p.m. CT March 19, 2020 | Updated 7:26 p.m. CT March 19, 2020

The media is most definitely not your enemy.

Far from being the enemy of the people, day in and day out we take our role as the Fourth Estate seriously and work hard to protect your right to know, making public records requests and attending public meetings to keep you informed.

Why?

Because we believe all the business government does, whether in open public meetings or behind closed doors, is your business.

We believe every last penny government spends is your money.

We believe it is your right to know every transaction, every decision, every expenditure and every deliberation of your government.

Whether talking about the White House, the statehouse or the county courthouse, all the documents held in government halls belong to the people, and all the business conducted by our governors is public business.

We believe our government your government can only be of, by and for the people when it is out in front of the people.

Primary to our Republic is the understanding that we are the government and the government is us.

The only powers held by federal, state or local government are the powers we give.

So, whether it is Congress, the states General Assembly, county commission, city council or the board of education, it is your right to know all of the peoples business.

When you attend local city, county or school board meetings, ask questions and hold elected representatives accountable, you are not minding their business, you are minding your own business.

When you make a public records request, you are not asking local records custodians to give you something that just belongs to them or the office where they work. You are simply asking for your own documents.

The Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment which guarantees the freedom of speech and the freedom of press, is not intended to protect the media, per se. Rather, the founders built a hedge of protection around the media because of the media guards and fights for the publics right to know.

According to a Brookings Institution report,more than 2,000 newspapers across the country ceased publication in the last 15 years or so. The shuttering of newspapers presents a very real and present danger to our most basic freedoms. Thats why communities should support their local newspapers, through subscriptions and advertising, now more than ever before.

Journalists keep an eye on government, shine the light on its actions, fight the good fight for access to documents and meetings, champion transparency and defend the First Amendment because of a core belief in your basic, fundamental rights principally, your right to know.

CNHI Deputy National Editor Jim Zachary is the president of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. He can be reached ajzachary@cnhi.com

Read or Share this story: https://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/2020/03/19/jim-zachary-sunshine-week-its-always-your-right-know/5048146002/

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Sunshine Week: Its always your right to know - News-Leader

Did the U.S. Supreme Court go too far in its rationale for free speech and press when ruling for the New York Times in a landmark libel case brought by a public official 56 years ago?

President Donald Trump believes so and he now seeks to narrow the latitude of the press and the publics constitutional protections in three defamation cases filed recently in federal courts against the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN.

The lower court outcomes will doubtless find their way to the Supreme Court in an effort to fulfill Trumps aspiration to change federal libel law. In the meantime, the president can boast during his campaign that hes going after the enemy press.

News outlets big and small have enjoyed the body of law that has grown up around Times vs. Sullivan, the 1964 libel case brought by an Alabama police commissioner after the newspaper published an advertisement about the mistreatment of civil rights demonstrators. The ad included minor errors such as Martin Luther King being arrested seven times instead of the actual number of four and the demonstrators singing the Star Spangled Banner, not My Country Tis of Thee.

The Alabama courts found in favor of the police commissioner but the Times appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned the finding on the ground the First Amendment restricts the ability of public officials to sue for defamation.

This week news organizations across the country are celebrating Sunshine Week, a time to inform the public about the value of government transparency and the watchdog role of the press.

But the public should also celebrate the protections of the First Amendment that permit citizens to engage vigorously in civic affairs and speak their mind about public officials.

The Supreme Court ruling in the Times case established the actual malice standard which requires a public official to prove a citizen or news organization knew damaging information was erroneous and published it anyway. Or recklessly disregarded whether the information was true or not.

This standard was later expanded by the courts to include celebrities and other public figures.

Trump has chafed under the legal principle, vowing to change it through the appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices that would restrict the protections of free speech and free press.

But as recently as three years ago, the court upheld the constitutional concept in a trademark case brought by an Asian-American rock band named the Slants.

A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all, wrote then Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. The First Amendment does not entrust that power to the governments benevolence. Instead, our reliance must be on the substantial safeguards of free and open discussion in a democratic society.

President Trump considers the press, and its constitutional protections, contrary to his interests when news and opinion coverage are unfavorable. Other presidents have felt similarly. But they did not seek to overturn those protections with lawsuits challenging press freedoms.

Nor should Trump. The Founding Fathers adopted the First Amendment when a free-wheeling, raucous and highly partisan press existed in America. Yet they realized it offered protection against censorship and corrupt government.

Trump is different. He is determined to take down what he calls the enemies of the people. His policy of winning no matter the consequence allows no thought of failure.

Thus the defamation lawsuits filed by his campaign against the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN for opinion columns accusing Trump of inviting Russian assistance in the 2016 election and possibly in the upcoming presidential election.

The Trump lawyers claim they have much evidence of bias and fake news reporting against Trump by all three news organizations, suggesting they knew the opinion columns were false on the matter of soliciting Russia assistance and printed them anyway.

Fortunately, Trump has a high bar to get over to prove his case as the highest public official in the land. He has no qualms about using his right to free speech to scorch rivals, but objects when others turn the heat on him.

Thats the kind of vigorous give-and-take the First Amendment is intended to protect. For presidents, for the public and for journalists.

Bill Ketter is the senior vice president of news for CNHI. Reach him at wketter@cnhi.com.

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Embrace First Amendment freedoms to keep them | Don't Miss This | times-news.com - Cumberland Times-News

The National Socialist Movement, the American Nazi party, does not have a First Amendment right to rally in Williamsport at Brandon Park (or anywhere else) because their agenda is to encourage violence. Currently, a lawsuit is underway by the City of Charlottesville based upon the efforts of the organizers of the National Socialist Movement to both plan and encourage violence at a rally held in that city.

Our Mayor and City Council are wrong to believe that there is any First Amendment right. It seems quite clear that the authorities in this city have not looked even casually at the history of the National Socialist Movement or examined their postings in connection with the event to be held in Williamsport.

Williamsport, Pennsylvania will now become known as the City of Hate. It behooves our newly elected Mayor, City Council and the Chief of Police to do some research on this organization and to deny the permit.

A number of years ago, I received a telephone call from Mayor Campana when the Ku Klux Klan sought a permit in Williamsport. The Mayor said that because of the groups history of violence, he would not permit it. I received a similar phone call from the Mayor of Montoursville. The Ku Klux Klan did not hold its rally.

After the permits were denied, the head of the Ku Klux Klan was referred to me by the ACLU in Washington, DC. I met with the Klan head in my office for approximately 3-1/2 hours. After the meeting, I told the Klan head that I would not represent him but that there were plenty of other lawyers who had a twisted notion of the First Amendment. I encouraged the Klan leader to work through conventional, non-violent channels.

The Chief of Police of the City of Williamsport later told me that the man I talked to quit leading the Klan and that the organization would not be pursuing any legal action.

Our current Administration has to stand tall. Have some backbone on this issue. Hatred and incitement to violence must be opposed regardless of where those extremist views come from. The question is not one of opinion, but rather a history of violence and the promoting of behaviors that are a clear and present danger to others.

One must ask whether the Mayor, City Council and Chief of Police have looked into the organization, its history, its social media prior to rallies around the country, and what has occurred at those other events.

I am and remain a proud civil rights lawyer. As I write this piece, I am preparing a federal complaint against a school district that denied to my client her first amendment rights and retaliated against her for exercising those rights. The First Amendment is crucial. The document inked by our Founders was meant to be enforced.

Nevertheless, and in spite of the First Amendment, the Congress of the United States, during one of the earliest administrations, passed the Alien and Sedition Act. Under the Presidency of John Adams, publicists and journalists were jailed for expressing negative views and opinions about the Federalists who were in power. This was a dark and ugly history for our nation. Other attempts to quash First Amendment rights have occurred throughout our nations history. The First Amendment must be a bulwark that stands between democracy and totalitarianism.

The Supreme Court is often quoted as having stated that one has a right to yell fire in a crowded movie theatre. The First Amendment does not permit advocating or planning violence. People are criminally punished and go to jail who plan or try to convince others to commit violent acts. Violence is the agenda of the American Nazi Party.

No counter-demonstration or police presence will remove the stain from this Citys reputation and history should it permit the Nazi event to go forward in Brandon Park. Our City officials should stand up proudly against granting this permit and should fight in the courts for the principle that violence and advocates of violence have no home in our beautiful City.

We live in an era where it seems that the First Amendment is defined by whether a particular official belongs to the left wing or right wing. Williamsport is taking an anemic stance towards a hate organization such as the Nazi party because of a misplaced and completely inaccurate view of the First Amendment. Such views are not progressive or open-minded, but rather represent the equivalent of unintended cooperation with forces of hate. History has shown us that the Roosevelt administration not only failed to oppose the Nazi effort to destroy all Jews in Europe, but through its indifference actually encouraged the Holocaust. The Roosevelt administration was filled with anti-Semites who acted as a silent cheering section for the goals of the Third Reich. Our public officials must be cognizant of history. Liberalism and open-mindedness should never be an open highway to permit the promulgation of violence in the name of the glorious First Amendment to our Constitution.

The question as to whether the Nazis will be allowed to rally in Williamsport or whether the permit will be revoked is a defining moment in this Citys history.

Cliff Rieders is a Board Certified Trial Advocate in Williamsport, is Past President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and a past member of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.

Link:
Distorted View of the First Amendment | Clifford Rieders - The Times of Israel

The legislations intent, just like it was in 2018 and last year, isnt to stifle anyones First Amendment rights to free speech or to peaceably assemble. Rather, the Minnesota Senates proposed Worker Safety and Energy Security Act is all about stiffening fines and other penalties when protesting goes too far.

In other words, the measure is meant to curb attempts to close pipeline valves, break into facilities, immobilize construction equipment, and other criminal activity carried out in the name of protest but that actually jeopardize the safety of workers and the public. Scary incidents have occurred at electrical-transmission routes, along oil pipelines, and at pipeline-construction sites. Incidents in or near the Minnesota cities of Clearbrook and Grand Rapids have made headlines in recent years.

Dangerous acts of vandalism are likely to only increase with Enbridges Line 3 Replacement Project and PolyMets copper-nickel mine both inching closer to reality here in Northeastern Minnesota.

We need to do what we can to build some of these additional precautions and different things into place for the construction season, Sen. Paul Utke, R-Park Rapids and the chief author of SF3230, said in an interview this week with the News Tribune Opinion page.

Were trying to be a step ahead and have pieces in place that will give law enforcement and our legal system a few more tools in their toolbox to handle these people who are breaking the law. We (want to) try to keep our workers and everybody else safe, he said. Its not stepping out of bounds. Its just basically reinforcing laws we currently have, but in todays society sometimes weve got to move them up the stepladder a rung or two to make sure people take them seriously.

Under the proposed law, violations would become felonies, and penalties would be increased to not more than five years in jail and/or a $10,000 fine for criminal trespass and not more than seven years and/or $20,000 for damage to property. Additionally, anyone training perpetrators in the performance of criminal acts could be held liable under the measure.

The bill needs to be written tightly enough so lawyers who simply advise environmental groups or column writers who favor nonviolent protest and others wouldnt inadvertently also be able to be charged with felonies. Imposing collective guilt isnt good policy and, encouragingly, isnt the intent. Neither is infringing on anyones right to peaceably and lawfully protest. The bill cant be written in any way that would hamper anyones freedom of expression.

A similar bill passed both the state House and Senate in 2018, only to be vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton. A bill last year was removed unexpectedly during the sessions closing moments, according to Utke.

For the safety of workers and worksites in Minnesota, the bill, written tightly enough to avoid overreach or the infringement on anyones First Amendment rights, can reach the finish line this legislative session.

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Other Opinion: Stiffen law for protests that go too far - Brainerd Dispatch

CLEVELAND, Ohio Sports games, concerts, festivals and parades are all affected by Ohios order banning mass gatherings of 100 or more people to combat the spreading coronavirus.

So why not churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions? What makes a group of worshippers less likely to spread the illness than fans and audience members?

The order, signed Thursday by Health Director Dr. Amy Acton after the state has seen five confirmed cases of the coronavirus, specifically says it does not apply to and/or excludes religious gatherings, gatherings for the purpose of the expression of First Amendment protected speech, weddings and funerals.

In other words, the health director and her boss, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, clearly carved out an exception for free speech.

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said the governor is a strong supporter of the First Amendment and that religious gatherings clearly fall under that category. He noted that the governor has implored people to use their best judgment about other free-speech-related large gatherings including for two canceled rallies that Democratic presidential candidates were set to hold Tuesday in Cleveland but stopped short of telling the organizers and attendees what to do.

Regardless of how strong the First Amendment is, however, it is not absolute. The government can step in and prevent affected partisan and religious gatherings if it has a legitimate interest in protecting, say, the health of the public.

Andrew Geronimo, a fellow at Case Western Reserve University School of Law that specializes in the First Amendment, said the government would have to show, potentially in court, that it has a compelling reason to ban an event that is not based on the content of the speech itself.

In other words, officials would have to show that they arent taking action because of how a group worships, but rather because its the best way to protect the group and other citizens. While its possible Ohio could successfully make that argument, Geronimo said it appears that the state is being somewhat defensive about the religious rights portion.

Indeed, other states that issued orders regarding events with large groups did not include religious exceptions.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued an order Thursday banning gatherings of 250 people or more. Among the events her order bans are faith-based gatherings.

An order issued in New York that limits mass gatherings also affects houses of worship, according to Syracuse.com.

Instead, DeWine is hoping that worshipers of all faiths, as well as their religious leaders, take his advice and think through whether its necessary to attend a service in person when the risk of catching and spreading the coronavirus is high.

At least some are heeding the governors words. The Diocese of Cleveland announced Thursday that it is canceling Masses scheduled for St. Patricks Day. The cancelations came the same day the Catholic Bishops of Ohio issued a letter that said they dispense their parishioners from attending Sunday Mass for the next three weekends.

Out of charity and concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we encourage all the faithful, in particular those who are sick, experiencing symptoms of illness, or are at risk of illness seriously to consider refraining from Mass attendance, the letter reads.

Read more:

Most mass gatherings in Ohio of 100 or more are banned due to coronavirus threat

Ohio Gov. DeWine announces 3-week spring break for Ohio schools to control coronavirus

5th Ohio case is Trumbull County man, 55 : Thursday coronavirus briefing by Gov. Mike DeWine

Ohio Department of Health confirms fifth coronavirus case in state: ODH update

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recommends Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders cancel Cleveland rallies to prevent coronavirus spread

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Mass gatherings of 100 or more are banned in Ohio because of coronavirus. So why can people still go to churc - cleveland.com