First Amendment Hodgepodge

By Julianne Prokopich

Golfweek's "Caught in a Noose"
Dave Seanor of Golfweek was removed as editor of the magazine on Friday after the image of a noose appeared on its Jan. 19 cover page issue, complete with the headline “Caught in a Noose.”

The cover page reignited Golf commentator Kelly Tilghman’s “lynch [Tiger Woods] in a back alley” comment last week on the Golf Channel in response to Nick Faldo’s analysis that the golf world’s young players would need to “gang up” on the No. 1-ranked Golfer to defeat him at a major championship.
Whether Tilghman’s comment was an accident or a calculated attempt of “hate speech” is debatable. However, Jason Sobel of ESPN.com referred to Golfweek’s editors use of the image of the noose as a calculated attempt to make the magazine a part of the story. Vice president and editor of Golfweek, Dave Seanor, told USA Today, “Was it an arresting image. Yes, it was. We chose it because it was an image we thought would draw attention to an issue we thought deserved some intelligent dialogue.”

Check out the ESPN’s “Firstand10” debate about the case.

Romney Called a Liar
Mitt Romney also made headlines. Reporters don’t often call politicians liars, even when they do lie. But Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson called Romney out last Thursday for being a liar. Johnson interrupted Romney when he said, “I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign. I don’t have lobbyists that are tied to me—“ Check out the confrontation on YouTube.

September 11 Litigation
The case regarding September 11 Litigation was rehashed in the news this week after The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued a press release “arguing that records in the civil case over liability following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks should be open to the public.” Victims of the attacks on 9/11 and their families filed suits against airline and security companies who seek to determine liability for injury or losses due to security breaches.

Editor Sentenced for Blasphemous Publications
In international news, MSNBC received news from Reuters that Alexander Sdvizhkov, editor of an independent newspaper, was sentenced to three years in jail in a closed session of the court for incitement of religious and national hatred for publishing 12 cartoons portraying Mohammad in a blasphemous way. The 56-nation Security and Cooperation Organization in Europe disputed the charges saying in a statement, “Persecution of journalists for trying to inform the public on important issues is a misuse of hate speech laws."

French Journalists Held in Niger
The First Amendment Center reported from Reuters AlertNet that two French journalists in Niger face the death sentence for reporting on the escalation of violence in the region when they were permitted to report only on the outbreak of the bird flu. The two were charged with “involvement with armed gangs” [Tuareg separatist rebels] but the French called for an appeal for clemency calling for the release of the journalists who were “fulfilling their duty to inform the public.”