A small newspaper and a police department in Kansas are at the center of a dispute over freedom of speech after police raided the office of the local newspaper and the home of its owner and publisher.

archive.org link

The police searches appear to have been prompted by a complaint from a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell, who accused the newspaper of invading her privacy after it obtained copies of her driving record, including a 2008 drunken driving conviction. Newell says the newspaper targeted her after she ordered Meyer and a reporter out of her restaurant earlier this month during a political event.

Meyer says a source gave the newspaper the information unsolicited and that reporters verified it through public online records. The paper eventually decided not to run a story, but it did report on Newell’s complaints about the newspaper’s investigation at a city council meeting, where she publicly confirmed she’d had a DUI conviction and that she drove after her license was suspended.

The search warrant names Newell as a victim and lists the underlying reasons for the searches as suspicion of identity theft and “unlawful acts concerning computers.”

  • Kashif Shah@lemmy.sdf.orgOPMEnglish
    4·
    5 months ago

    https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/06/ensuring-media-freedom-and-safety-journalists-requires-urgent-concrete

    Ensuring media freedom and safety of journalists requires urgent concrete action backed by political will: UN expert

    “In a climate of surging authoritarianism and backsliding of democracies, populist leaders have actively sought to demonise and discredit independent journalists and many governments have introduced restrictions on freedom of expression contravening international law,” said Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

    • Kashif Shah@lemmy.sdf.orgOPMEnglish
      3·
      5 months ago

      backsliding of democracies, populist leaders have actively sought to demonise and discredit independent journalists

      Hopefully the courts can handle this one without requiring Congress to write yet another law.