Kristin Marthaler
The Issue: The First Amendment allows the freedom of speech and media.
On Monday, the Collegian was contacted by the Argus Leader, KELO-TV and KSFY in regard to photos we were ordered to turn over by Third Circuit Court Judge Rodney Steele.
On March 7, the Collegian was served a subpoena ordering the paper to turn over all photographs of a disturbance that occurred during a campus-wide power outage on Oct. 3. The subpoena was drafted by Brookings attorney Terry Wieczorek on behalf of his client, Braden A. Anderson.
The Collegian’s major argument against turning over the photos was the First Amendment. Media should not have to give out names or hand over photos to the government or act like the long arm for the law.
Who will want to talk to the media if they know their information can get turned over to officials? What everyone does need to know is the Collegian fought it. We didn’t just voluntarily hand over the photos. We told Wieczorek he would have to subpoena the Collegian before the newspaper would turn over the photos. We technically do not even own the photos. Our photographers do. They have to buy all their own camera equipment? and we pay them only for each photo we choose to publish. The Student Press Law Center said the photographers could post the photos online for the defense attorney to view and download. The center’s legal counsel said once the photos were posted online, the photographers would no longer own them. We feel that advice was poor.
When Judge Steele ordered the Collegian to turn over photos, they were turned over unwillingly. For as short as the court hearing was, it was obvious Judge Steele would not have ruled any other way.
I personally feel more laws should be put into place to protect the freedom of speech sources have. Sources are encouraged to speak out and to use their names to be credible. What does this say about media if we HAVE to turn over sources or photos? I’m not ready to go to jail at 21. But I will.
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