DA's Office Bringing State Fair Protester In Appeal Court

© 2009 The Associated Press (Photo: Michael Okoniewski)

by Caroline Trudeau

Last week, the district attorney's office decided to ask for an appeal in the case against peace activist Ed Kinane, according to the Post-Standard. 

Kinane was arrested last year at the Great New York State Fair for trespassing after "walking around the fairgrounds in a hodded orange jumpsuit with his legs shackled, wrists handcuffed and carrying a sign protesting the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay."  He has been acquitted by Geddes Town Judge John Kinsella who rejected the charges saying Kinane had a First Amendment right to protest because he was on public property.

However, Assistant District Attorney Shawn Weed is arguing that the state fair is private because people have to pay a ticket to get in. 

• Was Kinane is his right and under which considerations? 
• What distinguishes free speech from fighting words, considering that soldiers were present on the fairgrounds?

Mafioso On Facebook

© 2009 Associated Press (Photo: Labruzzo)

by Caroline Trudeau

This week, The New York Times has revealed that many Facebook pages have been created in honor of Mafioso, including a page named “Fans of Toto Riina, a Misunderstood Man” dedicated to Salvatore Riina, the boss of bosses, arrested in 1993 and now serving multiple life sentences.

Those pages have raised a lot of indignation in Italy, where anti-mafia groups were created on Facebook, asking the network website to remove all pro-mafia pages. Some people have even compared those pages to sites honoring Hitler or Nazism. Senator Gianpiero D’Alia, senator of an anti-mafia commission, also asked Facebook to remove the pages, arguing in a phone interview with The New York Times that “we can’t accept in virtual reality what we don’t accept in real reality.” 

Facebook has already taken down some pages based on the fact that they were violating the site’s terms of use. Those rules ban any content deemed as “harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnical or otherwise objectionable.”

In Italy, an investigation is ongoing to determine if those pages might be a new way to send coded messages between the members of the Mafia, or only unthreatening messages from fans.

• What should be the standard or "test" used by Facebook about those kind of groups?
• Like discussed in the Google's article, where is the limit between free speech and hate speech?
• If authorities demonstrate those pages can be dangerous for the security of Italy, should Facebook take down the pages?

Preps Made If Reporters Arrested at Inauguration

(c) 2008 Associated Press

(Photo by Matt Rourke)

Police arrest protestors at Republican National Convention in September, 2008

by Barbara Fought
Because police arrested reporters covering protests at the Republican National Convention last summer, a journalism organization is offering a hotline and help to any reporters who might be swept up in any large-scale arrests of protestors next week at the inauguration.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press offers a tip sheet for reporters and will have attorneys standing by to help them.

• What would you do if you got swept up in a big police action during a demonstration and police asked you to give up your camera, disc or notebook? Do you know what the law requires?
• What if you're not arrested, but you have pictures or video that would help identify persons who threw rocks or committed other criminal offenses. Would you give your recording or disc to the police?
• Is Feiner still good law today -- what is the line between lawful protest and endangering the public or inciting a riot?