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Show n times of stress . . . 'Freedom of press must be insured' BY CYNTHIA WOOTTON Staff Writer In the realm of fair trial versus free press there can be few con clusive answers, only opinions. That was the analysis of Ted Capener, corporate director of news and public affairs at KSL radio and television, who spoke on "The Public's Right To Know" at the Utah Law Forum Friday. Mr. Capener began his remarks by shooting out some of the questions ques-tions which both the news media and the judicial system have difficulty diffi-culty in answering when it comes to the news coverage of criminal proceedings. Right to know "Does the public have a right to know?" he asked. "Is this right spelled out in the Constitution? "If there is such a right, did anyone ever entrust it to the press? And if we (the press) fight or fail to fight for your right to know, does it make any difference differ-ence to you?" According to an article in Quill, a journalism fraternity publication, publica-tion, from which Mr. Capener quoted, the phrase "right to know" was coined by the late Kent Cooper, one of the organizers organ-izers of t h e Associated Press. This right was defined by Mr. Cooper as one which the public actually possesses, and not one which is selfishly the printers' alone. In Mr. Cooper's words, "It (the 'right to know') means that the government and the newspapers newspa-pers and broadcasters should not, by any method whatever, curb delivery de-livery of any information essential essen-tial to public welfare and enlightenment enlight-enment . . ." Essential to public welfare Mr. Capener admitted that definition def-inition of this "information essen-tial essen-tial to public welfare and enlightenment" enlight-enment" is a difficult one to formulate. form-ulate. As a case fin point, Mr. Capener referred the audience, composed chiefly of law students, to the brutal murder of three young Salt Lake boys, the murders mur-ders all taking place within a week's time. The community was frightened and service station attendants at-tendants began to carry side arms. "If you were a reporter," suggested Mr. Capener, "and a police officer told you early one Sunday morning that they'd caught the murders up in one of the canyons in an old car, a bloody knife under the seat, wouldn't you have reported that information to the community? During the previous pre-vious week, a community had been in mortal fear. Society was not g o i n g to be benefited by withholding with-holding the information on these men, though the two suspects might have been benefited and long-run justice for the two men might have been served. But the public, in order to alleviate the fear in the hearts of mothers with young boys, as well as everyone's fear, had a definite need for the information." Guidelines Mr. Capener considered the affect af-fect of the American Bar Association's Associ-ation's Reardon Report on suggested sug-gested guidelines for news coverage cover-age in criminal proceedings. He indicated his agreement with the bulk of the Report in its clarification clarifica-tion of the kind of pre-trial news that was of little good to the pub-he pub-he and of great harm to those accused ac-cused opinions about a defendant's de-fendant's character, his guilt or innocense; admissions of confessions; confes-sions; references to the results of investigation proceedings; opinions opin-ions concerning evidence or argument argu-ment in the case ; records of prior convictions, etc. Yellow Journalism During a question-answer period, peri-od, one student in the audience suggested that news reporting of criminal proceedings becomes nothing more than "yellow journalism." journ-alism." It was his opinion that, for the sake of sensationalism, the news media dishes out information without checking it out, without thinking of the consequences to the accused. Although Mr. Capener Capen-er agreed that journalists must strive continually to make their reporting objective, h e insisted that the news media's responsibility responsi-bility to the public was unde-batable. unde-batable. Considering the problem from another direction, Mr. Capener reflected, re-flected, "If the media is supposed to reflect society's doings, as a mirror, who would not want the media to let them know what kinds of atrocities are occuring. I cannot think of any reason why the My Lai massacre investigation investiga-tion should not be thoroughly covered." cov-ered." Proper timing Another student remarked that, rather than repressing news, the news media should concern itself with the proper timing in its release re-lease of news. Mr. Capener replied re-plied that this was, of course, a nice thought, but then he asked, "Who is going to be the judge? Who is going to be the one to say, 'Okay boys, we'll hold onto this news item until this time, and then you can say this, this and this.' " Continued Mr. Capener, Ca-pener, "When I find a news story, I'm going to report it." In the discussion, one student stated his feelings that the furious furi-ous competition among the branches of the news media is at fault for the lack of responsible timing in the release of news stories. Mr. Capener replied t o this remark by insisting that it is precisely this competition 'which insures that the publc's "right to know" is satisfied by keeping the news up-to-the-minute. Mr. Capener concluded his remarks re-marks by suggesting that it is in times of stress that freedom of the press is most threatened, and that it is in times of stress where freedom of the press is most needed, need-ed, and must be 'insured. |