Page 6

The Other Press

November 26 to December 8th 1981.

Another burning issue of Gateway

The Students’ Union at the University of Alberta is considering taking legal ac- tion against the City of Ed- monton following the con- fiscation of the Gateway student newspaper No- vember 19 by officials of the Edmonton Police and Fire departments.

Officials said the Gateway was seized because of a story about a November 18 incident of arson in the Student Union Building (SUB). They said the story may have been detrimental

Journalcide in

MONTREAL (CUP) - Journ- alists in Latin America are suffering persecution and death in their attempts to get stories, says journalist and producer Brian Mc- Kenna.

‘‘Most journalists risk their lives to get the news out,’’ he said.

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to the department's inves- tigation.

The papers were returned to the Gateway by police Monday morning and dis- tributed on campus.

About 12,000 copies of

‘the Gateway and about

21,000 copies of the Fed- eration of Alberta Students’ (FAS) Voice newspaper were discovered missing Friday morning.

Except for about 5,000 Gateways that had already been distributed to the Central Academic Building and SUB, the rest of the

McKenna_ spoke _ recently at Concordia University ab- out his experience in El Salvador last January, while filming a segment for the CBC television news _ pro- gram, The Fifth Estate.

The real problem concerns native journalists ‘‘Who have to make their daily bread,’’ said McKenna.

4:00 to 11:00 p.m.

Gateways remained on the loading dock in SUB. City officials said later they had mistaken the Voice news- papers for Gateways and taken them all.

The Gateway contacted campus security and city campus security and city police Friday morning when the papers were dis- covered missing. Until later that afternoon there was no word on the whereabouts of the missing papers.

At approximately 3 pm Friday, Gateway editor Peter Michalyshyn was

contacted by city police.

Shortly thereafter, Mi- chalyshyn and Gateway production editor Peter Cook met with police and fire department officials at police headquarters down- town.

The men said the papers had been removed shortly after midnight Thursday.

No court orders justifying the seizure had been is- sued,

The police and fire offi- cials said in conversations with Michalyshyn and

EI Salvador?

They have to stay in their country after writing their stories and so are open to backlash; and their publi- cations cannot go under- ground because of their financial structures which rely on advertising.

McKenna gave several ex- amples of Latin American countries where it is dif- ficult for mewspeople to. work, such as El Salvador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Guatemala, where he said it

¥

‘is illegal to study journal- y ism. a " “ ann ¢ Z ~

McKennal also’ screened the Fifth Estate episode on El Salvador, ‘‘Shooting the Messenger’ which centers on the shooting of News- week photo-journalist Oliv- ier Rebbot and features an interview with him several days before he died. Segments of the video jolted the audience as they viewed the film clips of journalists and students be- ing murdered by soldiers. McKenna discussed the situation in Argentina where he said the word ‘disappeared’ has become an active verb. ‘‘They’ve disappeared one hundred journalists. in Argentina,’’ he said.

According to McKenna, the Argentiniam govern- ment has developed ‘‘the Naval Solution’’ for dealing with journalists who, when their mutilated and broken bodies are discovered after their deaths; in effect speak from the grave about the horrible situation. The Naval Solution’’ involves flying out over the ocean

and: dropping journalists in- .

to ocean currents where their bodies will not wash up on shore and the world will never know what hap- pened.

‘“‘Most sides see journal- ists as propagandists with

the other side,’’ said Mc- .

Kenna. They are therefore

viewed as a threat. The unwritten rule that you don’t shoot a journalist is no longer being followed,

he said. As a result, the

journalists take risks. Photographers are in greater peril because they go to the scene of the conflict and can always be interviewed by journalists when they get back, he said. : “The (reporters) on short assignment also need pro- tection because they are the ‘ones who can ...tell it like it is,’’ said McKenna in ref- erence to foreign journalists who go to conflict areas

briefly to cover a story.

McKenna affirmed there is an ideological bias in North American newscasts due to the self-censorship on the part of journalists. We said also that too often. they accept what government sources tell them at face value, while Latin American governments. often orches- trate press conferences with

the knowledge that journal-

ists have deadlines to meet and cannot take the time to properly cover a story. Asked about Canada’s role in Latin America, McKenna said the Canadian diplo- matic performance in Cen- tral America is such that the lights are on but no- body is home. ‘‘There is no question that Canada is making a killing out of the arms race,”’ he said also.

Cook that the department wanted the paper out of

' circulation for only one day

to thwart the possibility of a copy-cat fire.

The Student Voice was re- turned to FAS Friday eve- ning.

The papers had been stored in a garage at the residence of the fire de- partment official. One’ of the officials who admitted to taking the papers led the two Gateway editors to the garage to identify the pa- pers.

The Gateways were trans- ported from the garage ina police paddywagon and taken to a police com- pound, according to the city officials.

Campus security said they assisted the police and fire department officials in re- moving the papers. Camp- us security director Gordon Perry said it was standard procedure to “assist” po- |- lice investigations on cam- pus.

Senior security officer R.).

_Oliver said, “It’s their inves-

tigation. They can do what

they want.” : Oliver said he was inform-

ed of the seizure by a cam-

_ pus security officer who as-

sisted the police and fire department officials in re- moving the papers after the Thursday evening seizure. The Gateway contacted campus security Friday morning. They said they had no information about

the missing papers.

At 3:00pm, SU facilities manager Stan Perka called campus security regarding the missing papers. Oliver told him he would inquire into the matter.

Shortly after 3:00pm, OI- iver contacted the police department. He informed officials there that they should act on _ inquiries from the SU about the mis- sing papers.

At about 3:15pm, a police department oficial phoned Michalyshyn and Michaly- shyn and Cook went to meet with city officials. The Gateway then learned that police and fire depart- ment officials were respon- sible for seizing the papers.

Edmonton police chief Robert Lunny contacted the Gateway Monday af- ternoon and apologized for any inconvenience the confiscation may have caused the Gateway or its staff.

A press release from the city police states that: “proper search and seizure procedures have been re- viewed with the police of-- ficer involved.” a