New York, July 18, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) strongly condemns yesterday's verdict convicting a Kansas-based
free-circulation monthly, its publisher, and its editor of criminal
defamation.
Jurors found publisher David W. Carson and editor Ed Powers of
The
New Observer, as well as Observer Publications Inc., guilty on seven
counts of criminal defamation.
According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a U.S.-based
press freedom organization, the case stems from a November 2000 article
in which the paper alleged that Carol Marinovich, mayor of the Unified
Government of Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, and her husband,
Wyandotte County District Court judge Ernest Johnson, did not live in
Wyandotte County but in an affluent county nearby.
By law, the mayor and the judge are required to live in the county where
they hold public office.
Though special prosecutor David Farris has not decided whether to seek
jail terms, Carson and Powers could be fined and jailed for up to one
year. Defense attorney Mark Birmingham announced he would ask the judge
to set aside the verdict or he would file an appeal, The Associated
Press reported. A hearing is scheduled for August 26.
"These criminal defamation charges defy both U.S. and international
standards and set a terrible precedent for the rest of world," said
CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "While journalists must be responsible
for their reporting, sending Carson and Powers to jail for what they
wrote would be an egregious violation of press freedom."
CPJ works to eliminate criminal defamation
As part of its campaign to eliminate criminal defamation statutes
from legal systems in North and South America, CPJ has expressed concern
to U.S. officials that at least 19 states and the District of Columbia
still have laws on the books that classify libel as a criminal, and
not just a civil, offense.
In CPJ's view, increasingly supported by international law, a civil
forum can provide adequate redress for any grievance that stems from
a publication.
"Criminal defamation statutes should be purged from the books in the
United States to set an example for countries where journalists are
routinely jailed because of what they write," said CPJ's Cooper.
