By RTDNA Chairman Mark Kraham

 

Lady Liberty took a slap in the face recently when the Guam Police Department raided KUAM-TV. On the afternoon of May 12 the GPD executed a search warrant and entered the station. KUAM employees were ordered out of the building and told not to turn on their cameras.

The station had recently produced a story regarding police trainee John Edwards who did not pass a polygraph examination. The story was based on a document the station received from a confidential source. Police entered the station and searched until they found the document, raising questions about First Amendment rights and the media’s right to protect a source.

Police maintain that the polygraph document was their property and that they therefore had the right to retrieve it. But, KUAM is pointing out that the document was a copy, raising an additional question as to whether this could indeed be considered the property of the GPD.

Attorney Arthur Clark said during the proceedings, "By violating the rights of KUAM, your honor, that's obviously a violation of all the First Amendment rights of all the public who receive their news and watch KUAM, and we think to allow a continue violation of First Amendment freedoms in this particular instance, constitutes irreparable injury."

The TV station is asking for $1,000 in damages. However KUAM General Manager Joey Calvo says it’s not about the money but to make sure that searches like the one carried out at the KUAM newsroom do not happen again. Calvo says the station was shut down for more than an hour while police searched the building.

RTDNA and AAJA immediately issued statements denouncing the violation of constitutional rights and freedoms. RTDNA observed, when government attempts to intimidate journalists through actions like those of the Guam Police Department, the ability of the press to serve as the eyes, ears and voice of the public is compromised.

We applaud KUAM for asserting its First and Fourth Amendment rights in the civil lawsuit it immediately filed against the police department and the Guam government.  We are confident that long-standing law and constitutional principles concerning freedom of the press will prevail. RTDNA firmly believes the search warrant should be quashed and the seized materials returned. In Guam, where the motto is “Where America's Day Begins,” we hope that American freedoms can shine brightly.

Surprisingly, this story has not received much attention in the United States. One would think that a possible violation of American freedoms in a U.S. Territory would at least garner some coverage. Doing a web search we find articles by the Associated Press, MSNBC, The Pacific Daily News, and of course KUAM but for the most part the story has been ignored.

Also surprising is the lack of a response from Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo. RTDNA has repeatedly tried to find out if the congresswoman knows about or is concerned about this incident. There has been no response to repeated phone calls and e-mail to her office.

Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how the court rules in this matter. Certainly, it reminds us of the freedoms we enjoy as journalists and why we should not take them for granted.