[ACLU-CU ALERT] Fwd: [Steering] UPTV bans video in eavesdropping case; copies available to the press

[Announce at aclu-cu.org]

--- "Rachael E. Dietkus" <rdietkus at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: "Rachael E. Dietkus" <rdietkus at hotmail.com>
> To: steering at aclu-cu.org
> Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 16:54:38 -0500
> CC: 
> Subject: [Steering] UPTV bans video in eavesdropping
> case;
> 	copies available to the press
> 
> 
> 
> Please read below. And to note, the ACLU is
> interested in this case. I have 
> been talking with Adam Schwartz throughout the day
> today and will be reading 
> a brief statement from the ACLU of Illinois at the
> 2:00 p.m. press 
> conference on Friday at the Champaign Public
> Library. Adam will be sending 
> me the statement later today or early tomorrow and I
> will forward in to the 
> committee via e-mail as soon as I get it.
> 
> 
> -Rachael
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> PRESS ADVISORY
> 
> URBANA CITY OFFICIALS BAN SHOWING OF VIDEO
> DOCUMENTING CHAMPAIGN POLICE 
> TRAFFIC STOPS
> 
> COMMUNITY RALLIES AROUND EAVESDROPPING DEFENDANTS
> 
> PUBLIC SCREENINGS THIS WEEKEND
> 
> A press conference showing clips from the
> police-seized and Urbana 
> city-banned documentary that shows Champaign Police
> stops of 
> African-Americans and their white counterparts made
> by E. Martell Miller and 
> Patrick Thompson, defendants in an eavesdropping
> case and co-founders of 
> VEYA, Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults, will
> be held at 2pm, Friday, 
> September 10 in the auditorium of the Champaign
> Public Library on Randolph 
> Street.
> 
> The banned and seized documentary will be shown to
> the public at 4pm, 
> Saturday, September 11 in the auditorium of the
> Champaign Public Library on 
> Randolph St. and 1pm, Sunday, September 12 at
> Boardman’s Art Theatre in 
> downtown Champaign.
> 
> The original documentary was turned over to Urbana
> Police by staff at Urbana 
> Public Access Television (UPTV) and is being used by
> the state’s attorney’s 
> office against Mr. Miller and Mr. Thompson as part
> of an investigation into 
> eavesdropping charges against them filed by
> assistant state’s attorney 
> Elizabeth Dobson.  The documentary was supposed to
> air on UPTV on August 25, 
> 2004.
> 
> UPTV has banned airing of the documentary.
> 
> On Friday, a grand jury indicted Mr. Miller on three
> counts of 
> eavesdropping, including one count stemming from the
> seized documentary 
> voluntarily given to police by UPTV staff.
> 
> One segment of the video shows assistant state’s
> attorney Elizabeth Dobson 
> videotaping Mr. Thompson while he is videotaping the
> police.
> 
> “If this law is applied fairly and by that I mean to
> all citizens,” said 
> Bruce Ratcliffe, attorney for Mr. Miller, “it means
> you can’t take a video 
> camera to a wedding, or a high school football game,
> or even to the 4th of 
> July parade, unless you get permission of every
> single person there, and 
> that’s just plain silly.”
> 
> “What law allows Ms. Dobson to videotape Mr.
> Thompson in public?  What law 
> allows the news media to tape people in public
> without their permission? The 
> US Constitution. The same law that allows Mr. Miller
> and Mr. Thompson to 
> videotape the police in public. These charges
> against Mr. Miller and Mr. 
> Thompson are a threat to the first amendment rights
> of us all and to Mr. 
> Miller and Mr. Thompson's personal liberty,” said
> Rev. Jermone Chambers, 
> minister of Temple Liberty Church.
> 
> The eavesdropping charges against Mr. Miller and Mr.
> Thompson are based on 
> 720 ILCS 5/14-1.   The law defines an eavesdropper
> as “any person, including 
> law enforcement officers…who operates or
> participates in the operation of 
> any eavesdropping device.”  According to the law,
> eavesdropping occurs when 
> the “sending and receiving parties intend the
> electronic communication to be 
> private…and the electronic communication is
> accomplished by a device in a 
> surreptitious manner.”
> 
> A full copy of the law may be viewed at:
> www.leg.state.il.us
> 
> 
> - 30 -
> 
> 
> For more information, please contact:
> 
> Rev. Jerome Chambers, 398-6738
> Kimberlie Kranich, 721-7224
> 
> 
> 
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>
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> 



		
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