Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 13:41:40 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Subject: UDK EDITORIAL: PAPER DUMPING TO PROTEST MOORE STORY HYPOCRITICAL FROM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS - LAWRENCE EDITORIAL PAGE - APRIL 18, 1995 ================================ PAPER DUMPING HYPOCRITICAL VIOLATION OF FIRST AMENDMENT Manner that students used to protest story in Kansan could be considered theft; a method against the law "YOU SAY THAT FREEDOM OF UTTERANCE IS NOT FOR TIME OF STRESS, AND I REPLY WITH THE SAD TRUTH THAT ONLY IN TIME OF STRESS IS FREEDOM OF UTTERANCE IN DANGER." The above statement was written by William Allen White, the person for which the School of Journalism at the University of Kansas is named. White does an eloquent job explaining the value and importance of free press. The paper dumping affair that took pl ace two weeks ago was a direct assault upon that freedom. The University needs to directly address this issue with an addition to the University Code. Freedom of the press is one of the most fundamental rights that a democratic country can have. The framers of the Constitution deemed it so crucial in the development of this country that they enumerated it as one of the first items in the Bill of Rights. For more than 200 years freedom of the press has faced attacks by narrow-minded citizens, authoritative politicians and over-zealous judges. Yet through all these attacks, freedom of the press continues to be as strong as it was when the Bill of Rights w as ratified and remains bedrock to the core principles upon which this country was founded. This episode of paper dumping raises an interesting question. Does protesting, also a fundamental right guaranteed by the freedom of speech clause in the First Amendment, against a newspaper conflict with freedom of the press? The answer is a resounding n o. The press is subject to protests, but they must be protests conducted in a legal manner. While the right to protest is indeed fundamental, it is by no means absolute. The difficult task of balancing the rights of citizens that conflict with each other has been reserved for the Supreme Court. The Court has ruled that free speech can be abridged, directly or indirectly, by legitimate time, place and manner restrictions. The important restriction to focus on in the case of paper dumping is manner. The notion that paper dumping is a symbolic action afforded free speech protection is a fallacy because the manner of such a protest could be considered theft. Theft is certainl y a legitimate restriction to impose upon freedom of speech. One may argue that paper dumping is not theft because the papers are free. Actually, the papers are not free. Each student pays a student media fee of $3.00. That money directly funds the publication of the paper. Implicit in paying that fee is the unders tanding that students will be entitled to a paper each day. An organized movement to take all the papers from campus and symbolically dump them in a place that is not disclosed to all students denies students the opportunity to obtain a paper for which t hey paid. Thus, theft is being used as a vehicle for a protest, and this forfeits any First Amendment protection that these protesters were trying to hide behind. Paper dumping is an issue and a problem serious enough that needs to be addressed by the University directly with an addition to the University Code. It is not a legal protest, and it is not censorship. Paper dumping is an ironic attack on free speech. It embodies the kind of regulation against free speech that is most deplored by the Supreme Court and open-minded individualsÐÐview-point regulations. Those who dump papers are symbolically saying, "since we disagree with your viewpoint, we will allow no on e to see it." Paper dumping is plain and simple hypocrisy, for one cannot use the First Amendment as both a shield and a sword. -TIM MUIR FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD