Removing the gag

Court finding right for public, free press

Imagine a major crime happening in your community and the authorities charged to protect and serve responded with a curt “It’s none of your business.”

Chances are, most folks wouldn’t take kindly to such a patronizing dismissal.

Thankfully, in an egregious case of an Arkansas judge demonstrating imprudence toward the people he’s supposed to serve, the Arkansas Supreme Court didn’t take terribly long to set things straight.

Back on Aug. 11, a 21-year-old Southern Arkansas University student from Sparkman named Joshua Keshun Smith tragically died after he and another student were shot on the college’s campus in Magnolia. It all happened on the day classes got underway for the fall semester.

Four men have been held in the Columbia County jail without bail since last month in connection with the shooting. The quartet, three of whom are SAU students with ties to the school’s football program, face capital murder and aggravated robbery charges.

Judge David Talley Jr. of the 13th Judicial Circuit issued broad gag orders barring discussion of the criminal cases against the four young men held in the jail. The orders even included restrictions on members of the media.

We can respect that some people feel reporting on such tragedies is unneeded. They’re wrong, but they have every right to view things that way.

And judges do have considerable authority to limit the release of information that might make it difficult for the accused to receive a fair trial. But going so far as to bar reporters from delivering information about the case to their readers or viewers?

That’s what they call “prior restraint,” a practice made illegal by the protections afforded the press in the U.S. Constitution. It is a form of censorship — of government control of the information reporters can deliver to their readers or viewers.

In those early decades after the printing press was invented, some nations “licensed” the press, allowing nothing to be published without prior approval of the state or, in some cases, church authorities. In this country, the Founders had the good sense to recognize a free press is essential to good government and helps counteract bad government. How? By exposing what needs to be exposed, by delivering to the American public information needed for citizenship and for keeping a watchful eye on those empowered by their votes. The U.S. Supreme Court has for more than 100 years recognized that a “free press” is hardly free if government has the capability to prevent publication of information without the review of government officials.

Talley overstepped his bounds, the Arkansas Supreme Court determined after the Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Press Association challenged the validity of Talley’s effort to control what the press publishes.

It’s chilling to think there are judges on the bench who believe it’s no big deal to install such sweeping gag orders, to prevent the public from gaining a greater understanding of events within their communities.

When a judge issues such orders, there’s usually no explanation as to their motivations. In so doing, the judge creates legitimate questions as to why a particular case needs such special treatment and why he’s willing to give it.

Such judicial findings aren’t in the best interests of local residents, who have every reason to want reliable information about something so serious as a murder on the local college campus.

Thankfully, the Arkansas Supreme Court recognized Talley’s order for its overreach and dissolved the gag orders, no matter how much the judge or, potentially, local and campus officials might have wanted to restrict information to the public.