Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 08:59:03 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Mumia Sues NPR! Go Mumia! (fwd)



Marc, "the Chegitz," Luzietti
personal homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett
political homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett/chegitz.html

"Susan, when a man's wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he's in 
no position to run." -- Cary Grant in  "Bringing Up Baby."

>3S>http://www.phillynews.com/daily_news/96/Mar/27/local/MUMA27.htm
>3S>>                                                               Local
>3S>>   [Philadelphia Online]    THE PHILADELPHIA    Wednesday, March 27,
>3S>>                              DAILY NEWS
>3S>>                                                               1996
>3S>>
>3S>>
>3S>>                            Mumia sues NPR
>3S>>
>3S>>                           by Steven Susens
>3S>>
>3S>> States News Service
>3S>> WASHINGTON, March 26 -- Convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal says
>3S>> National Public Radio has violated his First Amendment rights, and
>3S>> he blames Bob Dole.
>3S>>
>3S>> In a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, the
>3S>> former radio journalist contends that NPR decided not to run a
>3S>> recorded broadcast of his death-row commentary for the show ``All
>3S>> Things Considered'' in 1994 after pressure from the Fraternal Order
>3S>> of Police and Sen. Dole, the likely Republican contender for the
>3S>> presidency.
>3S>>
>3S>> The suit seeks $2 million in damages from NPR and the airing of
>3S>> Abu-Jamal's recordings.
>3S>>
>3S>> ``Basically, NPR failed to air the program after Dole threatened
>3S>> their appropriations,'' said Noelle Hanrahan, Director of the Prison
>3S>> Radio Project, which is backing the lawsuit.
>3S>>
>3S>> According to the Congressional Record of June 9, 1995, Bob Dole is
>3S>> quoted on the Senate floor saying, ``If it had not been for members
>3S>> of Congress . . . you would be hearing this cop killer on National
>3S>> Public Radio with commentaries, and they were going to pay him, I
>3S>> think, $120 per commentary.''
>3S>>
>3S>> The suit contends that NPR has also failed to honor repeated
>3S>> requests from Abu-Jamal that his recordings be released to him and
>3S>> the project.
>3S>>
>3S>> In a statement, National Public Radio calls Abu-Jamal's allegations
>3S>> of censorship ``wholly without merit.
>3S>>
>3S>> ``We are troubled by this attempt to use the courts to dictate to an
>3S>> independent news organization what material should be broadcast,''
>3S>> the statement read.
>3S>>
>3S>> NPR denied that politics or police advocacy groups weighed in their
>3S>> decision not to air the Abu-Jamal recordings, and said the decision
>3S>> to hold the commentaries was not censorship.
>3S>>
>3S>> Dole's office did not respond to a request for comment.
>3S>>
>3S>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>3S>>
>3S>>                                 [---]
>
>
>
>




     --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---