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buyer's guide - San Francisco Police Officers Association

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April - May, 195 POLICE AND PEACE OFFICERS' JOURNAL Page 13<br />

RIGHTS OF PRESS DURING RIOTS<br />

The first opinion in the history of the<br />

city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clarifying<br />

the relations between police officers<br />

and news photographers and reporters during<br />

emergency situations, was recently<br />

issued by City Solicitor David Berger.<br />

In essence, it holds that the freedom of<br />

the press provision in the Federal Constitution<br />

guarantees newsmen their newsgathering<br />

rights even during emergencies.<br />

"Meaningful freedom of the press includes<br />

the right to photograph and disseminate<br />

pictures of public events occurring in<br />

public places," the opinion states. It adds<br />

that physical abuse of news personnel by<br />

a police official can constitute "an extreme<br />

form of censorship."<br />

On the other hand, it holds that the<br />

police are under no compulsion to assist<br />

news personnel to secure news when such<br />

help hampers them in performing their<br />

duty.<br />

NEAR-RIOT<br />

The opinion stems from an incident involving<br />

a press photographer during an<br />

Adlai Stevenson speech at the University<br />

of Pennsylvania Palestra during the recent<br />

presidential campaign.<br />

While helping to restore order during<br />

a demonstration or near-riot, a police of-<br />

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ficer accidentally or deliberately shoved<br />

the photographer, a staff member of a<br />

Philadelphia daily paper, against a wall.<br />

The incident prompted <strong>Police</strong> Commissioner<br />

Thomas J . Gibbons to ask for legal<br />

advice to clarify the respective rights of<br />

the police and the press during riots, demonstrations,<br />

arrests, and like circumstances.<br />

The City Solicitor replied in a threepage<br />

opinion, believed to be the first of its<br />

type ever issued in any major American<br />

city, as follows:<br />

FORMAL OPINION No. 196<br />

CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,<br />

LAW DEPARTMENT<br />

You have asked coy opinion regarding<br />

the respective rights of the police of the<br />

city of Philadelphia in maintaining law<br />

and order and of press photographers performing<br />

their work with complete freedom<br />

of the press. This request was precipitated<br />

by an incident occurring on October 31,<br />

1956, at the Palestra of the University of<br />

Pennsylvania during a political rally of the<br />

Democratic Party.<br />

HECKLERS Busy<br />

It appears that during the televised<br />

speech of Adlai Stevenson, Democratic<br />

candidate for President of the United<br />

States, a vociferous group of hecklers attempted<br />

to interrupt the proceedings by<br />

displaying a banner, shouting and other<br />

wise creating a loud disturbance. Especially<br />

since great sums of money were spent for<br />

the national television program, the rude<br />

and inexcusable interference with Mr. Ste-<br />

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venson's speech was hotly resented by the<br />

large and partisan audience in the Palestra.<br />

This created a condition threatening to<br />

incite violence or even possibly riot in an<br />

overcrowded hail.<br />

It was only natural, therefore, that police<br />

were called to quell the disturbance.<br />

<strong>Police</strong> intervention was opposed and a certain<br />

amount of force became necessary to<br />

remove the demonstrators from the hall.<br />

Whether inadvertently or not, one of the<br />

photographers of a city newspaper was included<br />

in the group and in the ensuing<br />

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