Media giants express First Amendment concerns over police raid on Kansas paper.
Media giants raise freedom of the press concerns after police in the Kansas town of Marion raided a local newspaper office and the home of its publisher last week, seizing equipment and records.
Marion’s police department was accused on Aug. 11 of violating First Amendment protections after officers raided the offices of the Marion County Record and the home of its owners.
The raids on the family owned paper took place after a warrant was issued and signed by a local judge.
The owner and publisher, Eric Meyer, said on the newspaper’s website that four Marion police officers and three sheriff’s deputies participated in the two raids, seizing personal cell phones, internet routers, and computers.
Mr. Meyer said that the police also seized the newspaper’s file server and equipment that was unrelated to their search, but was needed to continue the paper’s operations.
Freedom of the Press Violated in Raid
The publisher told Axios on Aug. 14 that he plans to file a federal lawsuit over the raid, which he said contributed to the death of 98-year-old his mother and co-owner, Joan Meyer.
Ms. Meyer, who was “otherwise in good health for her age,” died at her home Aug. 12, after becoming “stressed beyond her limits” over “illegal police raids,” he said
“Our first priority is to be able to publish next week,” said Mr. Meyer in a statement, “but we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today.”
He plans to file a suit “to establish a clear precedent that this sort of behavior cannot be tolerated.”
A reporter for the Record stated on Facebook that she was injured in the raid, which she called “chilling.”
“The chief of the Marion, Kansas Police Department, Gideon Cody, forcibly yanked my cell phone out of my hand, so heads up that I will be without it (my phone, not my hand) for a while,” reporter Deb Gruver wrote on Facebook.
“I’ve filed a report with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation because a previously dislocated finger was re-injured,” she said, adding, “I thought I lived in the United States.”
Mr. Meyer told The New York Times that he had never experienced government pressure like this.
“If we don’t fight back and we don’t win in fighting back, it’s going to silence everybody,” he said.
US Press Community Protest Local Kansas Police Raid
The raid was widely condemned by major news organizations and journalism advocacy groups, who are supporting the Marion County Record, which has a circulation of about 4,000.
Over 30 major news organizations and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) wrote a letter to the chief of the Marion Police Department on Aug. 13, saying there “appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search.”
“[T]he police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency,” said Seth Stern, director of Advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, in a statement following the raid on the paper.
The media coalition and major press organizations argued that the raids infringed on the paper’s rights and may have violated federal law that restricts law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches.
“We are shocked and outraged by this brazen violation of press freedom by authorities in Marion County, Kansas. Local law enforcement agencies reportedly searched the offices of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher, and seized reporting materials including computers and cell phones, injuring a reporter’s finger in the process,” said the National Press Club in a statement.
“We are deeply concerned that a Kansas judge issued a search warrant authorizing this search even though the federal law clearly requires authorities to use subpoenas rather than search warrants if they seek to access records of a news organization in the course of an investigation.
“A law enforcement raid of a newspaper office is deeply upsetting anywhere in the world. It is especially concerning in the United States, where we have strong and well-established legal protections guaranteeing the freedom of the press.
“This search violated the rights of the journalists at the Marion County Record to serve their community by gathering and reporting the news. We stand by the Marion County Record in its efforts to continue publishing despite the seizure of important reporting material and equipment.”
“We demand local authorities return the reporting equipment to the Marion County Record immediately, and we expect a full investigation by appropriate state and federal authorities into why this search warrant was requested, authorized and executed,” the statement concluded.
Well-Connected Figure Supported by Local Law Enforcement
The raids took place following a complaint from local restaurant owner Kari Newell, who accused the Marion County Record of illegally obtaining and disseminating sensitive information on a drunken driving conviction against her, reported the Kansas Reflector.
The search warrant, which was viewed by The Epoch Times, identified several pages of items that law enforcement officers were allowed to seize and was related to Ms. Newell’s case.
The paper responded that it had legally obtained the information from a tip and used public online records to verify details, but decided against publishing the information and instead contacted the police.
However, the paper still wrote about Ms. Newell, confirming her conviction during a city council meeting, according to Axios.
Meanwhile, the politically connected Ms. Newell also had Mr. Meyer and a reporter, Phyllis Zorn, removed from an event at her restaurant last week with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kansas), reported the Kansas Reflector.
Ms. Newall told The New York Times i
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