The entirety of Marion’s five-member police force and two sheriff deputies invaded the Marion County Record’s office last Friday, confiscating computers, cellphones, and other journalistic materials. The unanticipated blitz, in Kansas, spearheaded at Eric Meyer’s home as well as the newspaper’s premises simultaneously, has chillingly been called a clear assault on the free press, lending a profound sense of foreboding to the future of investigative journalism.
Initial intel points to the raid’s motivation as a confidential informant incriminated by a leak of “sensitive” documents to the newspaper. The newspaper’s publisher and owner, Eric Meyer, interprets this police action as a crystalline threat – abide by our rules, or face the muzzling consequences.
The ransacking of the newsroom is troubling to media advocates and leaves the newspaper on shaky operational grounding with an imminent weekly publication deadline.
This startling event follows stories from the newspaper detailing a local restaurateur, Kari Newell, chasing reporters from a meeting featuring US Rep. Jake LaTurner. Additionally, the newspaper exposed Newell for driving without a license and a history of DUI, and Newell complained saying that private information was leaked to the paper.
Meyer, a veteran journalist with an experience of two decades at Milwaukee Journal and 26 years as a journalism professor at the University of Illinois, voiced his disbelief at this extreme suppression of the press.
In the eye of this unprecedented censorship storm, the Kansas Press Association’s Executive Director, Emily Bradbury, defended the sanctity of journalism as a cornerstone of democracy and public awareness.
The disconcerting operation, supposedly justified by a search warrant issued by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, seemingly flouts federal protections against the warrantless seizure of journalistic content. Typically, information from journalists is supposed to be subpoenaed.
Furthermore, legal maneuvering ensues with Meyer mired in suspicion of an ulterior motive from the confidential informant, potentially connected with Newell’s divorce process. However, allegations from Newell, concerning the illegal procurement and dissemination of sensitive documents by the newspaper, proved unfounded.
