Battle for 1st Amendment rights, free press wages on

As co-publisher of this hometown weekly newspaper, the news last week from Marion County, Kan., left me horrified.
You’ve likely heard the story by now how local police came bursting through the door of the local newspaper office and proceeded to search the place, confiscating reporters’ computers, hard drives and cell phones. City police, acting on the authority of a judge-issued warrant, then proceeded to the newspaper publisher’s home where they took more computers, cell phones and documents, this time while the publisher’s 98-year-old mother watched in horror. Tragically, Joan Meyer died the next day from what her son said was a result of stress from the raid.
“These are Hitler tactics and something has to be done,” Joan Meyer told a Wichita Eagle reporter. The Hitler comment turned out to be one of the last things she ever said.
And what, exactly, prompted such extreme law enforcement actions in this rural Kansas community? Details of the story are still unfolding, but preliminary reports indicate that the searches originated out of what appeared to be a trivial dispute between the Record and a local business owner who had accused the newspaper of invading her privacy and illegally accessing information about her and her driving record. The Record, according to its publisher, had decided not to run the story and information gathered because editors questioned the motives of the tipster.
In case you think rural newspapers never deal with legal pushback when trying to do their jobs, think again. During my 38-year journalism career I’ve dealt with numerous public officials who had no respect for journalism or journalists, including a city administrator in South Dakota years ago who pulled me as a young editor out of a public meeting to say: “Son, you and I both know that those damn open meetings laws are an exercise in futility.” His message was clear, that some nosy, do-gooder journalist wasn’t about to change the way he and his old boy network did things the way they’ve been done for decades, without the public’s knowledge or consent.
Fortunately, I’ve never experienced such extreme pushback here in Nebraska, though there are most definitely some members of small local boards who would prefer the press wasn’t there listening in and reporting what they say and do. Open meetings and public record laws, which are in fact strong in this state, exist for the public’s benefit, though this case offers proof positive that some people don’t see it that way. 
The jolting reality is that this misbegotten raid didn’t happen in Russia, or China, or some far off totalitarian state, but rather in a town of 1,922 people in rural Kansas, just over three hours away from Aurora.
The bigger story, and likely criminal implications from this troubling search, lies not with the upset business owner, but rather the judge who authorized such overreach, as well as the police chief and officers who carried it out. They’ve got some explaining to do, and may themselves end up out of a job and/or behind bars!
The battle for First Amendment rights and a free press, an integral part of our nation’s history, wages on.
KURT JOHNSON can be reached at kjohnson@ hamilton.net