Press freedom at U of M is denied

by Bob Funk on May 18, 2008

in Education, Independent Record, Social Issues, University of Montana

The University of Montana and the Students for Economic and Social Justice are continuing to recieve some attention in the state and in the social justice world - none of it makes the U of M look very good (the administration, that is).

Now the U of M administration is being accused of denying freedom of speech on campus (is this the way a place of higher learning should operate?).

A leading authority on press freedom in the state says the University of Montana unlawfully denied student journalists access to campus meetings that culminated in the suspension of eight students.

Montana Freedom of Information Hotline lawyer Mike Meloy expressed his position to UM Dean Charles Couture in a letter, after Couture imposed the three-day suspensions for a nonviolent protest in the university president’s office last month…

Student journalists contacted Meloy on a day that Couture met with the protesters and denied the Kaimin access.
“Your office is clearly a state agency and your meetings are covered by the Montana Open Meeting Law,” Meloy wrote Couture, citing a 2004 decision in an Associated Press case challenging the commissioner of higher education. The Montana Supreme Court defined “agency” to include the commissioner’s meetings with employees.

“If the person who is being discussed waives the right of privacy, the meeting must be open,” Meloy wrote in the letter that arrived after the disciplinary proceedings.

UM would not have changed its stance had the letter arrived earlier, university lawyer David Aronofsky said.

“One single public official can’t by definition be an agency,” Aronofsky said. “Only an agency can be an agency and only agencies are subject to (Montana’s) open-meeting law.”

He said a 1993 court case that challenged the city of Billings supports his position.

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