Democratic, GOP parties win dubious Muzzle Awards

[April 07, 2009]  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The Democratic and Republican parties both earned dubious Jefferson Muzzle Awards Tuesday for what a free-speech watchdog described as tacit compliance with restrictions on where protesters could demonstrate during their national conventions over the summer.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression picked the parties for its 2009 list of egregious violators of free-speech rights because it said both went along with government-designated "free-speech zones" that limited protesters to areas that were often out of view from delegates to the presidential nominating conventions.

Hundreds of protesters -- and some journalists covering the protests -- were arrested by local police in St. Paul and Denver during the summer events.

"During the conventions there seemed to be no attempt to question these policies," said Bob O'Neil, director of the Charlottesville, Va., center.

Party officials' failure to come out against law enforcement officials' practice of segregating protesters "perpetuates a view that free speech is a nuisance to be accommodated as little as possible rather than a constitutional right integral to the democratic process," the center said.

"Considering the Democratic National Committee and our convention team had no role regarding the free-speech zone in Denver, we don't think we're deserving of the award," DNC spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth said in statement.

The Republican National Committee declined to comment, according to spokesman Jon Thompson.

The Command Authority of Camp Lejeune Marine Base received a Muzzle Award for requiring Jesse Nieto, a civilian base employee, to remove stickers that read "Islam Terrorism" and "Remember the Cole, 12 Oct. 2000" from his car before reporting to work. The latter decal referred to the Yemeni suicide attack that killed Nieto's son, Marc, a sailor on the USS Cole.

Nieto was cited by military police this past summer for displaying what was deemed offensive material, and until his legal challenge is resolved, he's barred from driving his vehicle on base or to any federal installation, including Arlington National Cemetery, where Marc Nieto is buried.

"The term 'offensive' gives enormous latitude and discretion to an official, without any definition at all," O'Neil said.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression awards the Muzzles annually to mark the April 13 birthday of its namesake, the third president and free-speech advocate.

It placed two public schools on this year's list for restricting students from wearing T-shirts with controversial messages.

Millard South High School in Omaha, Neb., suspended 23 students for three days for wearing T-shirts with the message "R-I-P Julius" to memorialize a friend killed in a fatal shooting. School administrators claimed the shirts were gang-related and potentially disruptive. In Aurora, Colo., Frontier Elementary School officials suspended a 5th-grader for wearing a hand-lettered "Obama -- a Terrorist's Best Friend" shirt and refusing to take off the shirt, cover the slogan or turn it inside out.

O'Neil said that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that administrators who intend to discipline students over such garments must prove the clothing actually causes disruption and isn't merely offensive or controversial.

Two Texas colleges also received Muzzles for banning gun-related speech. Lone Star College-Tomball was cited for refusing to allow a conservative student group to distribute a flier with "Top Ten Gun Safety Tips" that included "Always keep your gun pointed in a safe direction, such as at a Hippy or Communist," and Tarrant County College got its Muzzle for barring students from wearing empty gun holsters in protest against a campus ban on concealed weapons.

The Academy for Arts, Science & Technology in Horry County, S.C., also received a Muzzle for preventing distribution of a student newspaper because of an editorial advocating same-sex marriage.

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On the Net:

Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression:
http://www.tjcenter.org/

[Associated Press; By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON]

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