Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / March 21, 1973, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
SJbf flat NIT UNC 73 UMass 63 11 NIT UNC 73 UMass 63 Founded February 23. 1893 a a? is. 4 Chapel Hill. North Carolina, Wednesday, March 21, 1973 Vol. 81, No. 120 by Jody Meacham Staff Writer The North Carolina Seriate killed a limited shield law for newsmen Tuesday by a vote of 28 to 16. The bill was a committee substitute for a bill sponsored by Sen. McNeill Smith, D-Guilford County, and co-sponsored by Orange County Senator A.B. Coleman, Jr. Debate on the measure lasted nearly an hour and a half. Sen. Smith said that the bill was necessitated by the action of the U.S. Supreme Court last fall when it upheld the contempt convictions of two newsmen who refused to reveal their sources. In addition the Senate unanimously approved the second reading of a bill also sponsored by Sen. Smith, which would allow 18-year-olds to run for any office in the state except for governor, It. governor, and senator which have age requirements specified in the state constitution. Minority councilors permanent fixture ? by Greg Turosak Staff Writer Plans to keep the Black Students Advisory Council as a permanent advisory organization are underway, black undergraduate student Leonard Lee said Tuesday. JLee founded "the"" council in late " February in response to the need of the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of the Minorities and the Disadvantaged to find out overall black opinion on campus concerning recommendations to be made to the Faculty Council this Friday. The majority of the committee on minorities will recommend to the faculty to create and fill with members of minority groups five positions within the university administration, and to make greater efforts to recruit more black faculty members and graduate students. - Specifically, the committee suggests the following positions be filled by Weather TODAY: Partial clearing by late afternoon, with a high expected in the 50s. Low tonight in the 30's. Sixty per cent chance of precipitation. Senator Sam Ervin . . v l NT I x -N f ' sliieldL law Smith emphasized that the bill would protect only the source of the information, but that a reporter would have to testify about any information which he had gathered. According to Smith, the wording of the Supreme Court opinion had invited state legislatures to pass such shield laws. Sen. : George Rountree, R-New Hanover County, objected to the bill, saying, "I think it ought to be perfectly clear that it is not the source that is being protected. There were no sources present at the committee hearing. The committee room was filled with newsmen." Final action on the bill was delayed until today by Sen. Julian Allsbrook, D-Halifax County, who wanted to further study the effect of the bill. The bill is an amendment to the state constitution which requires the approval of three-fifths of the members of each house. If passed by the General Assembly, the amendment would have to minority members: a vice chancellor for Minority Affairs, an associate dean of Student Affairs, an assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs, an associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and an assistant to the provost. Before the committee made these and other recommendations, Lee formed and 'met with the black advisory council and reported their recommendations to the committee. ' According to Lee, "the basis for many of the recommendations came from that meeting." ' ' The committee on minorities recognizes the potential value of the group, advising in the introduction to its recommendations that the black advisory council continue to exist and that every effort be made by other groups on campus to consult the council before making any 'decisions which may affect black students. After the results of this Friday's Faculty Council meeting, Lee hopes to take steps to set up the black advisory council on a permanent basis. He also hopes that he will soon be able to obtain Student Union office space which would be open during the week. Lee said he will ask each black organization on campus to have a standing representative ready to attend a meeting when the occasion arises. He does not plan regular meetings of the council. nation's foremost Constitutional authority be approved by the people in the next general election. The shield bill would have provided that "no person engaged in reporting news publicly shall be compelled to testify in any proceeding concerning the name, address or other identification of any persons supplying such newsman with any information which was communicated and entrusted to him in his capacity as a newsman." Rountree continued, "There ain't no problem, no how, no way in North Carolina. We are in the position of anticipating a problem that does not now exist." Sen. Coleman said that the fact that no North Carolina newsmen were in jail did not mean that the state had no problem. He said that the public was being denied information that it would have if newsmen's sources were protected. Much of the debate centered around the question of libel under the law. The proposed bill contained a section which said, "Nothing herein shall relieve the newsman from such liability for defamation as may otherwise be imposed by law." : Smith said that the bill would have protected the source from libel in such a case, but that he thought a newsman when caught in a lie would reveal his source. Sen. Donald R. Kincaid, R-Caldwell County, said that under North Carolina law, a newspaper could not be sued for punitive damages since it is a corporation and newsmen do not have large enough salaries to make a suit profitable. In the final vote, Sen. Coleman voted for the bilL Orange County's other senator, William P. Saunders, voted against it. Alternative: loss of Rent by Linda Livengood Staff Writer Residents of University housing face a possible room rent increase for 1973-74, but no decision has been made at the present, Monday afternoon the administration presented a proposed budget for the coming year which would include the increase. Members of the Residence Hall Association were asked either to show a willingness to accept the increase or else give up some services which are presently provided. : Senate testimony All mewsmeii need MeMWilt1t by Ken Allen Staff Writer Any law to protect a newsman's confidential sources should include collegiate, high school and undeground newspapers, according to former DTH editor Evans Witt. These publications "are members of the Fourth Estate," Witt said in testimony March 14 before Senator Sam Ervin's, D-N.C, subcommittee on Constitutional rights of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Representing the college editors and the National Student Lobby, Witt told the subcommittee that college, high school and underground papers are as entitled to protection under the law as full-time papers. ' The subcommittee is investigating what rights, if any, a newsman has under the Constitution to withhold confidential news sources. Recently, newsmen across the country have been jailed for contempt of court for refusing to reveal sources that they promised to keep confidential. The former DTH editor pointed out in his testimony that court subpoenas were not unknown to college journalists. Witt -. - ' - i " 1 Ah.-, f V. . V;: y -3 I A ' ' J- - Viii As Despite the gloomy skies and chilly weather of the past few days, spring is definitely on the way. This honeybee had an appointment with goodness yesterday. Wish him many happy returns. (Staff photo by Scott Stewart) On springing Spring You know it's spring when Charlie Brown steps up on the pitcher's mound. It's a time of high hopes and maybe this year, just maybe, of that long-awaited winning season. And all because it's spring. Spring in Chapel Hill is special too. There's that beautifully idyllic picture of students discarding clothes and books to lounge under trees suddenly aburst with blooms. And the grass is green and birds sing ever so sweetly and gee, it's just all so wonderfuL Maybe Because spring in Chapel hill means you have to forget that it's snowed this coming weekend for the past two years. And that March winds and April showers seem more like tornados and monsoons. And you have to forget that you've already used up all your cuts and that your professor never has class outside. And that exams are only five weeks away and that term paper you meant to do over break is due tomorrow. But, then again, if you're a senior you can look back at the past four years (or five, Please turn to page 3, column 1 service hike still WD Dean of Student Affairs Donald A. Boulton, Director of Residence . Life Robert Kepenr and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Business John Temple blamed rising costs for. the need to adjust the revenue required. '' Dean Boulton said room rents will be adjusted each year based on the costs of providing services and maintaining University facilities. Administration officials will meet with the RHA in a special session Thursday to discuss details in the projected budget. Temple will prepare a further explanation of dormitory operating expenses, the Evans Witt cited the case of Annette Buchanan of the University of Oregon, involved in an early landmark shield case in 1966. Thomas Miller, a reporter for the College Press Service, was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury to reveal confidential information about political dissidents. 1,r in the 0 air costs of repairs and alterations and salaries of various University employes. . An increase in' utility costs of more than 100 per cent was cited as a reason for budget difficulties. The cost of rewiring many dorms, a project which is still uncompleted, was a major University expenditure. Furnishings for the Ehringhaus lounges strained the budget in the past. Maintenance costs have increased because of such vandalism as water fights that damage high-rise dorm elevators and littering of trees and lawns after games. Sherrie Bursey and Brenda Joyce of the Black Panther newspaper were ordered by a federal grand jury to disclose confidential information. College reporters are not exempt from jail, according to Witt's testimony. Mark Knops, editor of the Madison (Wis.) Kaleidoscope, an underground paper, was sentenced to six months in jail for refusing to reveal the source of published information. Arthur Kunkin and Robert G. Applebaum of the Los Angeles Free Press, a weekly underground paper, were jailed after publishing and refusing to reveal the source of a list of undercover narcotics agents. Although college, high school and underground newspapers have small staffs, small circulations and irregular schedules, they are no less important to their readers than the larger, more prestigious papers, Witt said. "Many of the atrocities in the Vietnam war were first revealed by such underground press services as the Liberation News Service and the College Press Service. College newspapers have been instrumental in some areas in revealing injustices, corruption and stupidity where the regular press was afraid to move." No change in elections -Governor RALEIGH-Republican Gov. Jim Holshouser told Democratic legislators Tuesday a proposed bill relating to elections boards is "working against me personally." Holshouser broke tradition and appeared before the House Election Laws Committee to make his plea for defeat of the bill which would insure Democratic control of the state's election machinery. "Our state requires hard work from you and from me," he said at a public hearing packed with an estimated 300 spectators. "You well know that I have been working with you, not against you." But he added, "Whatever the motives of its signers, and I do not question them, this legislation is divisive. It drives a wedge between us." The bill under question would require that a majority of the members of the state and county elections boards be members of the party with the most registered voters. If it passed, Democrats would receive control of the state elections board and all but five county boards. The present law, however, gives the governor the power to appoint board members from any party as long as no more than three of the five are from the same party. Democratic governors in the past have used this power to appoint Democrats. It is assumed that Holshouser would use the power to name Republicans. Rep. Gerald Arnold, D-Harnett, sponsored the proposed bill and it has been endorsed by the House Democratic caucus. In addition, according to Arnold, the bill is backed by State Democratic Party Chairman Jim Sugg. At Tuesday's hearing, however, only three Democratic legislators spoke for the proposed bill. The speakers blasted the bill as a way to "punish the winner" in the last election and a move to "emasculate" the executive branch. Democrats in addition warned that the bill could have disastrous consequences for Democrats in the next elections. Calling the bill a "partisan, political movement," Hyatt predicted the people "will no longer support a party that is not responsive to their wishes." He noted that the voters expressed their wishes by electing a Republican in November. Sen. l.C. Crawford, D-Buncombe, noted however that. the General Assembly has always held control over the election boards, but in the past "entrusted" that control to the governor because it "knew that the governor would appoint three from the majority party and two from the minority party." Now, he said, the governor is a Republican and "would give the majority to the minority party." '' That, he said, would be violating the wishes of the legislature and "the majority members of the General Assembly are not meekly going to surrender all their prerogatives and rights to the executive branch," he said. Since the student press has often been the crucial and sometimes the only source of information concerning the problems of corruption within the academic community, Witt told the subcommittee that the newsmen on these papers should come .under any protection afforded full-time newsmen. The former DTH editor does not support either the House's Wieker bill or Senate bill 1128, since they specify full-time reporters. Nor can he support a qualified shield bill, with exceptions for national security and the like, "for the various states' experiences with qualified laws show that their intended protection can too easily be twisted into simply another tool for annexing the press as an investigative area of the government." The U.S. Congress and various state legislatures are currently considering various bills to define a newspaperman's position under the first amendment of the Constitution. ' Sen. Ervin's committee-is studying the constitutionality of newsmen's privilege. Witt was called to represent the college newspaper point of view. With him at that session were two members of the New York Bar Association and a professor from Columbia University.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 21, 1973, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75