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– There’s outrage in Greensboro. Muslims, some city residents and city leaders – including the mayor – are up in arms. published the editorial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed which have sparked riots, protests and more than 50 deaths worldwide.
“Happy news needs no First Amendment,” said Times publisher William “Willie” Hammer. “The hard stories do.”
If you haven’t read the First Amendment lately, you can during the North Carolina Press Association’s annual awards dinner February 23, at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham. The Sanford Pottery Festival is giving each of the more than 440 editors and reporters attending a handmade coffee mug embossed with the First Amendment.
The Sanford Pottery Festival, scheduled for May 6-7 in Sanford, is the largest pottery event in North Carolina.
Pottery festival founder Don Hudson – a former attorney whose mother and grandmother were journalists – called the First Amendment “the foundation for the flow of communication in America.”
“I hope our mugs will circulate around newsrooms for years to come as a reminder of why the press is so important to our lives and why we have the right to know what’s going on,” he said.
It’s that “right to know” which has caused turmoil in the newspaper world.
Callers tohave expressed their dismay or support for the short article accompanying the cartoon that was published on February 16. Most felt the paper didn’t have “the right” to show the highly provocative graphic.
Times Editor John Hammer said, “You do have the right to publish things that offend anyone… The death toll was in the 50s and rising. For that many people to be killed in the world over a cartoon makes it newsworthy. Embassies have been burned. A dozen countries have endured riots.”
On the flip side, (MA), chose not to publish the cartoons.
Publisher Stephen Mindich wrote in a recent editorial, “Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy. As we feel forced, literally, to bend to maniacal pressure, this may be the darkest moment in our 40-year publishing history.”
Mindich and both Hammers agreed that the cartoons could not be described in words. They felt the First Amendment gave them the legal opportunity to decide whether to publish.
Amanda Martin, the general counsel for NCPA, said our nation’s democracy is based on the free exchange of ideas and information.
“Only when citizens are well informed can they make the best decisions for themselves, and the First Amendment is the shield that protects that exchange,” she said. “It assures that we are able to think for ourselves and share those thoughts with one another, free from the fear of government reprisal. The test of an idea is whether it survives scrutiny, not whether it is popular.”
John Bussian, the press association’s First Amendment counsel, said, “Most of all the First Amendment protects the free flow of information, upon which rests the future of the republic.”
A telephone survey of North Carolina newsrooms found reporters occasionally refer to the Public Information Act, particularly in dealing with governmental bodies, when questions arise about press rights. They typically don’t feel the need to lean upon the power of the First Amendment. But when needed, it’s there.
And if reporters and editors in North Carolina need a reminder, they’ll need look no further than their own coffee cups.
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