Reporters fight back with words after colleagues gunned down
ANNAPOLIS: In the shade of a car park in Maryland’s capital Annapolis, three journalists from the Capital Gazette typed grimly away — still without news of colleagues killed or injured when a gunman stormed the publication earlier on Thursday.
“We’re putting out a paper tomorrow,” vowed Chase Cook, one of six reporters at the daily.
“5 Shot Dead at The Capital,” said the headline of the daily in Annapolis, Maryland.
Inside, the editorial page declared, “We are speechless,” but was otherwise left blank in honour of those slain.
“We’re going to have a paper,” said Cook. “I don’t know what else to do except this,” he said. “We’re just doing our job.”
GUNMAN HELD GRUDGE AGAINST NEWSPAPER
In 2012, Jarrod Ramos, the shooter, brought a defamation lawsuit against Eric Hartley, formerly a staff writer and columnist with publication The Capital, and Thomas Marquardt, then editor and publisher of The Capi- tal, according to a court filing.
In 2015, Maryland’s secondhighest court had upheld a ruling in favour of the Capital Gazette and a former reporter who had been accused by Ramos of defamation.
According to a legal document, the article contended that Ramos had harassed a woman on Facebook and that he had pleaded guilty to criminal harassment. The court agreed that the contents of the article were accurate and based on public records, the document showed.