Opinion: 1st Amendment right to freedom of press important everywhere, including Asheville
The importance of journalism in a free society and my belief in the freedom of the press are important values in my life. Although I’ve worked as a journalist reporting news around the world and locally, I’m writing this as my opinion, based on longtime news experience.
Watching in awe for the first time what appeared to an 8-year-old as “mighty presses” in action — huge machines rolling, printing, noisily churning out beautiful newspapers — is a powerful memory from my childhood. That was mid-1950s at the local news publishing company for my city and region — the Asheville Citizen in mornings Monday-Saturday and Asheville Times in afternoons with both combined for Sunday publication as Asheville Citizen-Times.
At the time of my first tour in the old Citizen Times building, I had launched my own newspaper, printed by hand and pages copied with carbon paper, for my personal delivery to Montford neighbors on Saturday mornings. The next year I published three newspapers — one “4th grade reporter” for my public school, one for neighborhood distribution in the Manor Grounds, and an international paper mailed to supportive cousins and parents’ friends overseas.
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As a teenager I worked as an ACT reporter with my weekly news column “Teen Talk.” When I typed up my column and sat working in the conference room with senior journalists, I listened, soaking in all they discussed about what a good journalist should do.
The dedicated journalist as reporter learns by experience or is taught to cover accurately and fairly as objectively as possible to report the “truth” of all news of public interest, even taking risks of going against established interests and reporting on activities aimed to be hidden from public knowledge. (The Society of Professional Journalists publishes a voluntary code of ethics). An ethical journalist is doing an important job, though now, as in earlier centuries, frequently suffering collaterally from verbal and physical attacks against the so-called, great blob “media” that many love to hate and dismiss.
A belief in the First Amendment right to freedom of the press is globally acknowledged though seldom practiced. Unfortunately, the USA is declining in global rankings of press freedom, as noted in the annual World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), the international organization promoting press freedom and protection of journalists. (I am proud to have volunteered with this organization, including now serving as board chair of its RSF-USA-North America bureau.)
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In 2021 the Nobel Peace Prize laureates were two journalists, one in Philippines and another in Russia, honored for their local, later global efforts to promote press freedom in spite of incarcerations and other abuse. The Nobel Peace Prize brought world recognition to press freedom as a human right.
A case in my hometown of Asheville has brought global attention to press freedom at local levels. Two Asheville Blade newspaper reporters were last month convicted of trespassing in December 2021 while reportedly covering police evictions of homeless encampments in a city park after closing time. An appeal court hearing has been set for June 12.
Local, national and international organizations supporting press freedom and protection of journalists have spoken out against the court action. “Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the charges against two reporters from The Asheville Blade to be dropped … The trial against them sets a dangerous precedent that journalists can be prosecuted just for doing their jobs.”
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A view of some former journalists is the Blade reporters were not legitimate journalists because at least one reportedly did not have “proper accreditation.” Unlike some of the men noting this lack of credentials, I have been a freelance journalist trying to make my way in a world in which getting full-time jobs as a female reporter was then and now still difficult. So-called “official press credentials” are hard to get, especially for anyone “freelance” at the time of breaking news stories.
Covering news of all that is of public interest, to try to get to the truth without bending to political powers or business interests, can be dangerous in many ways for any dedicated journalist, not just international war correspondents who may become hostages or killed, but also reporters covering local news. Press freedom and protection of journalists are important everywhere worldwide, especially starting at the local level.
Elizabeth (Liz) Colton, Ph.D., award winning journalist, including News & Documentary Emmy Award with ABC News, now professor of diplomacy & the news media with UNITAR, Diplomat & Journalist in Residence at Warren Wilson College, board-chair of Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) RSF-USA/North America.
Colton will lead “Journalism Ethics and the Law”2:30-4 p.m. June 18 at the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville, Edgewood Rd, Asheville, NC.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Freedom of press facing threats in Asheville, North Carolina
