A 'chilling' attack on press freedom

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Journalists and journalism are under attack in the small town of Marion, Kan.

In a case that rightly outraged news media outlets and others who value democracy and free speech, on Friday local law enforcement raided the Marion County Record's office and the home of the paper's owner, publisher and editor, Eric Meyer. Computers and cellphones were seized — including Meyer's — in what is being criticized as an overt effort to suppress press freedom and independence.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody executed the search warrant in connection with a dispute between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell. She had accused the paper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record. She claimed that the newspaper targeted her after she ejected Meyer and a reporter from her restaurant during a political event.

Meyer denied Newell's complaints. He believes the newspaper's aggressive coverage of local politics was part of why the raid occurred. He added that the newspaper was examining Cody's past work with the Kansas City, Mo., police as well.

Newell said she believes the newspaper violated the law to get her personal information as it checked on the status of her driver's license following a 2008 drunken driving conviction and other driving violations.

But Meyer likened the raid to the type of tactics that Vladimir Putin or a Third World dictator might employ, while Cody told reporters that the raid was legal and tied to an investigation. Marion is a town of about 1,900 people about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City.

The Marion County Record is one of several news organizations targeted by local authorities in recent years over aggressive coverage. Like the Record, many of those news outlets are small and more vulnerable if they lose local contracts for legal notices and other advertising.

On Sunday, the national Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, on behalf of more than 30 news outlets, denounced the raid and urged police to return any seized equipment and records. In a letter to Cody, the organization wrote that the search warrant was "significantly overbroad, improperly intrusive, and possibly in violation of federal law … . Your department's seizure of this equipment has substantially interfered with the Record's First Amendment-protected newsgathering … and the department's actions risk chilling the free flow of information in the public interest … .''

Chilling, indeed. In so many cases, media outlets are the only institutions that can effectively investigate and hold government accountable on behalf of the public.

If you don't think that work is important, consider the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning editorials written by Art Cullen for the Storm Lake Times in Iowa that took on powerful agricultural interests.

It's important to note that the number of U.S. daily and weekly newspapers (and small-town newspapers in particular) has decreased significantly during the past several decades. That's left fewer reporters and editors performing the essential public service of watchdog journalism needed to examine how public officials spend tax dollars and do their jobs.

As Seth Stern, advocacy director at Freedom of the Press Foundation, told the New York Times, federal law allows the police to search journalists when they have probable cause to believe a crime unrelated to journalism has been committed. News organizations sometimes receive subpoenas seeking interview notes and other records, but as the Times points out a "search and seizure of the tools to produce journalism" is uncommon.

Stern appropriately summarized why the outrage over the Marion County raid is justified: "You can't say, 'I'm allowed to raid the newsroom because I'm investigating a crime,' " he said, "if the crime you're investigating is journalism."