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12 Media L. Notes 1 (1984-1985)

handle is hein.journals/mdilwnts12 and id is 1 raw text is: Media Law Notes Volume 12, Number 1 Newsletter of the AEJMC Law Division and the AALS Mass Communications Law Section November 1984 Roshto v. Hebert Remembrance of Things Past The Inside Story ... By Gary Hebert Editor, POST/SOUTH Tucked away systematically in a small corner of my building on Belleview Drive are bound copies of newspapers which date back to the 1800s. They contain the only original printed documentation of the history of Iberville Parish, as reported by newspaper journalists through all the years. The good things that happened here, as well as the bad and the distasteful, are contained in those pages, some of them almost chocolate brown, and brittle with age. Handling one of the issues, so marked by time, almost demands respect, and that's the mentality with which I approach these documents. This is not to say that these are the only historical documents in existence--all of the newspapers, page by page, are microfilmed by the LSU Library, and copies of the microfilm are available to the public. These newspapers, though, are the real thing. What developed over the last five and one-half years, from the day the Roshto invasion of privacy suit was filed, proved to be something which I, as a newspaper editor with the experience and exposure I've gained over the years, never dreamed could happen. There is hardly a day goes by that someone doesn't ask me when I will start putting out Pages from Our Past again. As you know it was this weekly feature, published after I pur- chased the Iberville South, which brought on the Roshto suit. District Judge Edward Engilio had no problems with this suit, he was quick to rule that what was published was truth, a compilation of truthful facts gathered from public criminal records, and that truth was, indeed, an absolute defense. Trouble arose when the Roshto brothers appealed the trial court's decision to the First Circuit Court of Appeal. It was there that some screwball thinking developed, and an opinion issued there stated that because of the lapse of time, the information published was no longer public record, but had, by some strange twist of mental gymnastics, become private information. The First Circuit, on April 13, 1982, overturned the district court decision, and awarded each of the brothers $35,000 in damages, and ordered the defendants to pay court costs. The Heberts, and South Publishing Co. Inc., represented by William C. Kaufman Ill, a Baton Rouge at- torney with the firm of Seale, Smith and Phelps, appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana for a writ of ap- plication, which was granted, and a hearing was held on November 30, 1982, in New Orleans. The Supreme Court decision to grant the writ of ap- plication came on the heels of an almost sensational out- cry from the newspapers of the state, the Louisiana Press Assn., and national press organizations, such as the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. Over a dozen weekly and small daily newspapers filed amicus curiae, (friend of the court) briefs urging the Supreme Court to review the First Cir- cult Court of Appeals decision. And, immediately following the Appeal Court's ruling, over twenty individual newspapers published editorials decrying the decision as one which was ...too chillingly similar to the communist tactic of rewriting history to suit political view. When the Roshtos' attorney attempted to state his case before the Louisiana Supreme Court, the very first question the Chief Justice asked him was: What do you suggest we do with our history books? That's the one question that sizes up this entire mat- ter--and tells us, once and for all, that newspapers are the historians of their communitites, that they know they are required to act responsibly, and that they make every ef- fort to record, as accurately as possible, the true history of a community. This is the only attitude I have ever had about newspapers--and it was with this mentality that I began the Pages From Our Past. The Supreme Court said that information contained on randomly selected front pages of former editions of a newspaper is certainly a matter of legitimate public interest. The people of this community told me this long before the Supreme Court got around to it. I know what tremendous enthusiasm an- ticipated those Pages From Our Past, because I live with the people of this community, and they tell me. Again, this has been a taxing, at times disppointing, and very expensive five and one-half years of litigation. We had good attorneys in Hammy Gascon, who han- dled the trial court hearing, and took the matter to the Court of Appeals, and to William C. Kaufmann III, who picked up with Hammy and took the matter before the Louisiana Supreme Court. We're grateful to them. And a million thanks to the editors, publishers, journalists, professional news media organizations, magazines, and newspapers for picking up the challenge, and practically demanding that the Supreme Court to grant us a hearing. Finally, Joyce and I are grateful to seven men, big men, who sit so authoritatively on the Supreme Court. Those of us who labor with the elements of truth, fact and pertinence, day after day, year after year, in our struggle to keep newspapers free, informative and ac- curate, know that we must, at all costs, record the good (Continued on page Sight.)

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