Kirtley to Speak at First Amendment Celebration
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 11, 2008) − One of the nation’s leading First
Amendment advocates will deliver the keynote address when the University of Kentucky’s Scripps
Howard First Amendment Center holds its annual First Amendment Celebration Sept. 16-17 in
conjunction with UK's observance of Constitution Day.
Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, will deliver the State of the First Amendment Address at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, in the William T. Young Library auditorium.
“It is a great privilege for us to have Jane Kirtley deliver our State of the First Amendment Address this year,” said Mike Farrell, director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center and an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at UK. “She is one the most thoughtful First Amendment advocates able to analyze the legal and ethical issues involved in the media controversies of our day. I am so pleased we are able to bring her to campus.”
Kirtley has been the Silha professor since August 1999. Before that, she worked 14 years as executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va., a nonprofit association that provides legal defense and research assistance to journalists. She was an attorney for five years with the law firm of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans and Doyle in Rochester, N.Y. and Washington D.C. She also worked as a reporter for the Evansville (Ind.) Press and The Oak Ridger and Nashville Banner (Tennessee). She has a long record of speaking and writing on behalf of First Amendment issues. In June, she traveled to Sierra Leone on behalf of the State Department to speak to journalists there about journalism integrity and ethics.
The First Amendment Celebration will conclude with a panel the next morning on “Who Is a Journalist?” A panel will discuss how the new media environment is changing the legal protections offered by the First Amendment and whether bloggers are entitled to protections and privileges offered print and broadcast journalists.
The panel at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, in the Young Library auditorium will include Kirtley; Jon Fleischaker, recipient of the 2007 James Madison Award for outstanding service to freedom of the press and Kentucky’s most accomplished media law attorney with Dinsmore and Shohl, Louisville; Tom Eblen, columnist and former managing editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader; and William Nichols, the managing editor of Politico who spent more than 20 years at USA Today, where he covered the White House, the State Department and served as senior correspondent in the newspaper’s Washington bureau.
“This is an extraordinary panel we’ve gathered to discuss a topic that is central to current discussions about journalistic freedom,” said Beth Barnes, director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. “The United States Senate is debating a federal shield law, and one of the big issues has been whether bloggers are entitled to the legal protections afforded journalists.”
Judy Clabes, winner of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center’s 2006 James Madison Award for outstanding service to freedom of the press and the chairwoman of the Scripps Howard Foundation Board of Trustees, will serve as moderator. Clabes received the first Madison Award for her effort to establish Kentucky’s First Amendment Center 20 years ago and her continued commitment to it.
The 2008 Madison Award will be presented Tuesday evening before Kirtley delivers the “State of the First Amendment Address.”
The Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, housed in the university’s School of Journalism and Telecommunications and directed by a committee of its faculty and staff, seeks to promote understanding of the First Amendment among citizens of Kentucky, to advocate for First Amendment rights in the Commonwealth and nationally, and to produce internationally recognized scholarship concerning the First Amendment and its related freedoms.
Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, will deliver the State of the First Amendment Address at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, in the William T. Young Library auditorium.
“It is a great privilege for us to have Jane Kirtley deliver our State of the First Amendment Address this year,” said Mike Farrell, director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center and an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at UK. “She is one the most thoughtful First Amendment advocates able to analyze the legal and ethical issues involved in the media controversies of our day. I am so pleased we are able to bring her to campus.”
Kirtley has been the Silha professor since August 1999. Before that, she worked 14 years as executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va., a nonprofit association that provides legal defense and research assistance to journalists. She was an attorney for five years with the law firm of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans and Doyle in Rochester, N.Y. and Washington D.C. She also worked as a reporter for the Evansville (Ind.) Press and The Oak Ridger and Nashville Banner (Tennessee). She has a long record of speaking and writing on behalf of First Amendment issues. In June, she traveled to Sierra Leone on behalf of the State Department to speak to journalists there about journalism integrity and ethics.
The First Amendment Celebration will conclude with a panel the next morning on “Who Is a Journalist?” A panel will discuss how the new media environment is changing the legal protections offered by the First Amendment and whether bloggers are entitled to protections and privileges offered print and broadcast journalists.
The panel at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, in the Young Library auditorium will include Kirtley; Jon Fleischaker, recipient of the 2007 James Madison Award for outstanding service to freedom of the press and Kentucky’s most accomplished media law attorney with Dinsmore and Shohl, Louisville; Tom Eblen, columnist and former managing editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader; and William Nichols, the managing editor of Politico who spent more than 20 years at USA Today, where he covered the White House, the State Department and served as senior correspondent in the newspaper’s Washington bureau.
“This is an extraordinary panel we’ve gathered to discuss a topic that is central to current discussions about journalistic freedom,” said Beth Barnes, director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. “The United States Senate is debating a federal shield law, and one of the big issues has been whether bloggers are entitled to the legal protections afforded journalists.”
Judy Clabes, winner of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center’s 2006 James Madison Award for outstanding service to freedom of the press and the chairwoman of the Scripps Howard Foundation Board of Trustees, will serve as moderator. Clabes received the first Madison Award for her effort to establish Kentucky’s First Amendment Center 20 years ago and her continued commitment to it.
The 2008 Madison Award will be presented Tuesday evening before Kirtley delivers the “State of the First Amendment Address.”
The Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, housed in the university’s School of Journalism and Telecommunications and directed by a committee of its faculty and staff, seeks to promote understanding of the First Amendment among citizens of Kentucky, to advocate for First Amendment rights in the Commonwealth and nationally, and to produce internationally recognized scholarship concerning the First Amendment and its related freedoms.