Cutler

Our nation faces a number of equally acute challenges on a weekly, even daily, basis but when police raid newspapers that is about as good a sign as any that we are way, way off track as a democracy.

That’s what happened earlier this month to the Marion County Record, a Kansas newspaper. Police and county sheriff’s deputies raided the newspaper’s office, the home of its owner and editor and the home of a city councilor. Police collected computers, cellphones and other items as part of the execution of a search warrant issued by a judge.

The warrant, according to other news organizations, cited potential violations of laws involving identity theft and the illegal use of a computer.

The searches appeared to have been part of an investigation into how a document containing specific information about a local businessperson reached The Record and whether the merchant’s privacy was violated.

Apparently, the newspaper used the state’s Department of Revenue’s website to confirm a drunk driving citation for the local business owner. The newspaper did not publish an article on the citation.

There remains at least a slight cloud of mystery surrounding the entire saga. For one, the work described by other media outlets is fairly routine fare for a newspaper. A tip is generated, the newsroom investigates the tip, finds out there is something to that tip and then must decide whether to print or not.

At face value, the newspaper made the right decision not to publish anything on the citation. For one, a private business owner isn’t a public official. The rules, at least from where I stand, are pretty specific regarding what to report on a public official versus a private citizen. A public official with a drunk driving citation is news. Readers need to know about that because they either elected that person or designated their elected leaders to appoint that individual to a public post.

The private business of a citizen or voter doesn’t fall under the purview of a newsroom — unless that private citizen does something significant in a fairly public way, such as committing a crime. The private business of a person isn’t something a newsroom should spend time on.

Yet, regardless of the circumstances, any time police raid a newspaper it is troubling.

First Amendment issues — such as freedom of speech and the press — immediately come into play. That’s why it rarely occurs in the U.S.

Freedom of the press isn’t just some nice-sounding idea. It was such an important concept it was front-loaded into the Constitution by our Founding Fathers.

The founders also saw newspapers as one of the best ways to keep people informed. Information gives voters the ability to make sound decisions about their government.

I hope all readers keep a sharp eye — as I will — on this story as it develops. It should be of interest to all of us who care about democracy.

For more information on House Bill 2605, visit forjournalism.org.