Al Smith to receive James Madison Award

Al Smith, who created "Comment on Kentucky," a statewide forum that has fostered public discussion of Kentucky policy and politics, has been chosen the 2011 recipient of the James Madison Award for service to the First Amendment.

Smith will receive the award on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at the annual First Amendment Celebration held by the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center and the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications.

The award is presented annually to a Kentuckian who has made a significant contribution to the values embodied in the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech and of the press. During his distinguished career, Smith was a tireless advocate for open government as a newspaper editor, publisher and industry leader, and television program producer.

“Throughout his distinguished career, Al Smith has promoted and fought for the values that embody our treasured freedoms of expression," Mike Farrell, director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, said. "His life’s work, as a faithful steward of the First Amendment, has enlightened citizens, invigorated our public discourse and held the powerful accountable. Kentucky has been blessed because Al Smith made the state his home and because journalism was his calling.”

"Comment on Kentucky,” a public affairs program broadcast on Kentucky Educational Television each Friday, debuted in November 1974. Smith was its host, discussing with a panel that included journalists, professors and other experts important issues to Kentucky, until he retired 33 years later.

Smith, of Lexington, is the author of a memoir, Wordsmith: My Life in Journalism, which was published this month.

The Madison Award was created by the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center in 2006 and is awarded annually to a Kentuckian who has made significant contributions to the efforts of a free press or freedom of speech. Smith is the sixth recipient.

The Madison Award will be presented at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 15. Mark Feldstein, former investigative reporter for CNN and ABC News, will then deliver the State of the First Amendment address. The event is free and open to the public in Room 106 of the White Hall Classroom Building on the UK campus.

Two press-freedom bills fail to pass

Two press-freedom bills are among those being tossed aside with just two limited-agenda days left in this year's regular legislative session. But the Kentucky Press Association vows to revive both next time around.

David Thompson, KPA executive director, said in a message to the group's members that SB 130, which would ensure access to voting places for journalists and photographers, had been agreed on by Secretary of State Trey Grayson, the State Board of Elections, the Kentucky Broadcasters Association and KPA. It passed out of the Senate State and Local Government Committee, then "politics showed up" in the Senate Republican caucus, Thompson reported. The bill wound up in another committee, where it remains.

House Bill 43 would have guaranteed freedom of speech and press for high school student journalists, with limitations, and would have immunized school boards from criminal or civil liability for student publications. But Thompson said it "didn't come close to getting a hearing" in the House Education Committee.

Thompson promised that KPA will lobby for both bills in 2010. The legislature may have a special session later this year but it is expected to be limited to budget-related issues. It returns next week to reconsider any vetoed bills and perhaps some held up by House-Senate disagreement.

Herald-Leader endorses high school press bill

The Lexington Herald-Leader called a legislative proposal to extend First Amendment rights to high school journalists "common sense and common fairness" in an editorial Wednesday.

"High-school aged people have died in every war this country has fought, been plaintiffs before the United States Supreme Court, run for public office, given birth to babies and paid taxes," the editorial said.

"So, shouldn't they have the freedom to express themselves like the rest of us citizens?"

The editorial noted that for much of America's history, high school students had the same First Amendment freedoms as everyone else, until a 1988 Supreme Court decision took them away. A number of states have restored those rights through legislation, the paper said, endorsing House Bill 43, now in the Kentucky legislature. That bill, in addition to restoring those rights, also preserves the right of high school administrations to censor libelous, disruptive or other types of reports. It also protects schools from legal liability for the content of a school newspaper.

The Kentucky Press Association and the Bluegrass and Cincinnati chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists have endorsed the bill.

To read the editorial, go to http://www.kentucky.com/591/story/706131.html

For a full text of the bill, go to http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/09RS/HB43.htm