The First Amendment prevails, despite efforts by the "free press"

author : Gar Lipow topic : Iraq occupation | Lakefair

by Gar Lipow

On July 10 and July 17, the Olympia City Council addressed an issue in which the city and the Olympian stopped an 85-year-old woman from handing out brochures in the Olympia Center public areas.

The result: The City Council said that there is definitely a right to hand out literature in lobbies and foyers of public buildings so long as it is done in a non-disruptive manner. This also includes the right to carry signs not on sticks -- again subject to common sense, like not blocking traffic or visibility. The exclusion of people with literature and flimsy cardboard signs from the hallway of the Olympia Center was definitely contrary to City of Olympia public policy. No change in policy is needed, the council says, because this sort of free speech is already allowed in the City of Olympia.

They said that public events held in public buildings -- not weddings and such, but free public forums -- should have some free speech provision even within the event, again consistent with not allowing the public event to be disrupted.

The events ordinance the City Council passed some months ago regarding multi-day festivals also requires free speech provisions as a condition of the permit. This does not take effect until January 1, 2008, so it did not apply to Lakefair this year.

However, according to Cathie Butler Communications Manager at the City of Olympia, the city has an agreement with Lakefair to allow free speech at Lakefair. This year, Lakefair provided "free speech areas" at 5th and Water Street and also at Percival Landing. Prior to the start of Lakefair, Cathie Butler spoke with the city attorney to clarify.

See the front page article, "Dismantling Our Constitutional Rights" to read an excerpt from a memo Cathie Butler wrote to Gar Lipow regarding free speech at Lakefair.

What follows is the statement Ruth Lipow made to the Olympia City Council regarding the Olympian's attempt to curb free speech:

On Monday, July 2, the Olympian sponsored a health care forum in the city-owned Olympia Center. The Olympian rented rooms A, B, and C, and no other facility within the center. In fact, classes were going on at the time.

The Olympian declared, as part of the rules of the forum, that no signs or leaflets would be allowed -- not only in the facility they had rented, but within any of the public space within the center, including the hallway. They posted a sign over the entrance reading, "No Signs Inside".

About 12 people, some from the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace (omjp), some from the Kucinich campaign, and some from the Olympian's own printers union came to hand out leaflets and carry signs to peacefully and non-disruptively present information not dealt with in the forum.

For example, the Olympian's forum never mentioned that one out of three health care dollars in the US is spent on red tape, nor that we spend more than everyone else, nor that our health care system is rated lower in quality than that of most rich nations.

When we got [to the Olympia Center], a number of hostile looking police were there to enforce the Olympian's declaration of no signs or literature inside the building -- not inside the facility the Olympian had rented, but anywhere inside the public building.

"The Olympian rented the whole facility," we were told. "You are not getting in there with those signs or that literature." I admit I did not try it. I'm an 85 year old woman. It is fairly easy for a police officer to intimidate me. We handed out our leaflets on the sidewalk, where they were not accessible to most people entering the building.

The Olympian often has editorials on the First Amendment when the rights of the press are violated. But apparently they favor freedom of speech and free access to information only for themselves; they are perfectly happy to break the law to deny it to others.

I would say that the police should apologize and be reprimanded in this matter, and the Olympian print (as apology) a joint op-ed from the omjp and the Kucinich campaign, to give people access to the information the Olympian and the Olympia Police Department jointly and illegally suppressed at the forum.

I will add that I hope that when many people from across the Pacific Northwest come to peacefully protest warships at Lakefair, this does not represent the kind of illegal intimidation that will be used against people exercising their First Amendment rights on public property.