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New Director to Lead First Amendment Center
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 6, 2006) - A former Kentucky newspaper editor has been appointed to lead the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications’ First Amendment Center. Mike Farrell, assistant professor of journalism and former managing editor of The Kentucky Post in Covington, replaces Roy Moore, professor of journalism, who has retired from the university.
Beth Barnes, director of the UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications, said Farrell is well-qualified to lead the center because of his blend of professional experience and scholarly interests.
“Mike fought to quash challenges to the First Amendment as a newspaper editor. He studied the First Amendment and First Amendment law as a graduate student, and is contributing to a textbook on media law. He is passionate about the First Amendment, and will bring that enthusiasm to his work directing the First Amendment Center.”
Farrell said he believes the most important role of the center is to help Kentuckians understand the importance of freedom of speech and of the press and how easily these freedoms can be eroded when citizens fail to guard them.
“The First Amendment was woven into the fabric of our Constitution so that citizens could participate in their own government and so that the press could serve as a check on the power of government,” Farrell said. “That is as important today as it was in 1789 when James Madison began his effort to create the Bill of Rights.”
The center’s goals include working with civic literacy efforts to ensure that students in Kentucky learn about the heritage of free expression; promoting high school journalism; expanding public understanding of and appreciation for freedom of the press; and assisting efforts of the state’s newspapers and broadcasters to ensure that governments continue to operate in the sunshine of public observance.
“I also think it is important that the students we prepare to work in the journalism field leave our school understanding their rights under the First Amendment and the responsibility to defend freedom of the press and democracy,” Farrell said.
The First Amendment Center was dedicated in 1989 under the auspices of the Kentucky First Amendment Congress, which was led by Judy Clabes, a UK graduate who was then editor of The Kentucky Post. It has received major support from the Scripps Howard Foundation, where Clabes is now the president and chief executive officer. The center, located in the UK Grehan Journalism Building, houses a variety of First Amendment resources.
Farrell’s plans include creating an annual First Amendment Celebration on campus; holding an essay contest on the First Amendment for high school students in the state; honoring journalists who promote freedom of the press through their reporting, their editorial support for freedom, and their efforts to keep public records and public meetings open to the public; promoting civic literacy and public understanding of freedom of expression; holding seminars to discuss First Amendment issues; and shining the spotlight on government officials and agencies that violate the spirit of the state’s Sunshine Laws for open government. The center is also committed to research on First Amendment issues.
Other members of the First Amendment Center are Barnes; Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues; Chike Anyaegbunam, Yvonne Cappe, Deborah Chung, Alyssa Eckman, Jim Hertog, Richard Labunski, Scoobie Ryan, and Buck Ryan, all members of the journalism faculty; Tim Sineath, director of the School of Library and Information Science; Janice Birdwhistell, development officer for the College of Communications and Information Studies; and Verona Cumberledge, foundation research officer for the university.
Farrell was a reporter, city editor and managing editor at The Kentucky Post from 1977 to 1996. The newspaper won several awards during that time, including a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for support of the First Amendment. His master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation both focused on First Amendment issues. He has been teaching at UK since he began his master’s program in 1996 and became a full-time faculty member in 2003. He regularly teaches reporting, editing, media law, and ethics. He also has taught media and politics, editorial and column writing, and this fall for the first time teaches reporting on religion news. He received the College of Communications and Information Studies’ teaching award this year.
— Media Contact: Amanda Nelson, (859) 323-6363
Moore
Becomes Director of First Amendment Center
Aug. 29, 2005 (Lexington, Ky.) -- Roy Moore, professor of
journalism, has been appointed to succeed Buck Ryan as executive
director of the University of Kentucky’s First Amendment Center,
based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications.
Moore’s plans for the First Amendment Center include stimulating
innovative research on a variety of First Amendment issues and
collaborating with other First Amendment centers around the
country and with related programs at UK.
Moore also plans to involve other faculty in organizing workshops
and seminars to inform the general public, the press and high
school and college students about the scope and importance of the
First Amendment, and creating a First Amendment Clearinghouse of
faculty who are available to be interviewed as experts on a
variety of First Amendment topics.
“This is a critical time for the First Amendment as public
support for and understanding of freedom of speech and press and
other constitutional rights continues to decline, especially among
members of the new generation,” said Moore.
Moore wants the center “to serve as an invaluable public
resource by providing a nonpartisan forum for information and
discussion on First Amendment rights and responsibilities. “My
goal is for the center to become one of the premier First
Amendment centers in the country. I’m really excited about being
its new executive director.”
The Center was dedicated in 1989 under the auspices of the
Kentucky First Amendment Congress. It has received major support
from the Scripps Howard Foundation. The center, located in the
Grehan Journalism Building, houses a variety of First Amendment
resources.
Moore is the author of “Advertising and Public Relations Law and
Mass Communication Law and Ethics.” He teaches both
undergraduate and graduate courses in mass communication law. As
one of the founding members of the First Amendment Center, Moore
played a major role in the fundraising that established an
endowment for the center. He is a featured Kentucky Humanities
Council speaker on the First Amendment and has made numerous
presentations on First Amendment topics.
Buck Ryan had directed the center since 1994 when he joined UK as
director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. He
oversaw eight annual First Amendment Celebrations that brought
Pulitzer Prize winners, press freedom fighters and national civic
leaders to campus for events and provocative discussions.
As a senior fellow at the center, Ryan will continue to direct the
Citizen Kentucky Project, an initiative that looks at the
relationships between the university, the press, citizens and
civic life. “We need to find creative ways to put the public
back in public policy,” Ryan said.
Under Ryan’s direction, the Citizen Kentucky Project will host
the community forum titled “Civic Literacy: The People, the
Press & Public Policy” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday,
Sept. 14, on UK’s Student Center patio across from the Free
Speech Area. Ryan will serve as moderator.
— Whitney Hale
'Citizen
Kentucky' Project to Hold Community Forum
Oct. 8, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) -- A community forum will be held as
part of the Citizen Kentucky Project from 7 to 9 p.m. on
Wednesday, Oct. 9, at Kentucky Educational Television's Visitors
Center, 600 Cooper Drive. The forum will address concerns and
thoughts from Lexington's citizens on how Lexington can become
America's most livable city by 2020.
The Citizen Kentucky Project, created by Buck Ryan, executive
director of the University of Kentucky's First Amendment Center
and former director of UK's School of Journalism and
Telecommunications, began with an April 2001 community forum at
UK's William T. Young Library focusing on civic life in Kentucky,
which was produced into a national award-winning KET program,
"Citizen Kentucky: Democracy and the Media."
"The Citizen Kentucky Project is about changing the
relationships between the university, the press, citizens and
civic life," Ryan said. "As a professor, I am trying to
engage citizens through the power of the press. All the while, I
am working closely with my students to help them learn more about
the relationship between journalism and democracy."
As part of the project, Lexington mayoral candidates Teresa Isaac
and Scott Crosbie wrote their vision of how Lexington will be in
2020, which was published in the Lexington Herald-Leader. In
addition, Ryan, himself, has provided commentaries for the
Herald-Leader for the project.
"Two of those citizens (involved in Citizen Kentucky) are the
candidates for mayor," Ryan said, "and I am working as a
liaison between them and the press, as their ideas get expressed
in print through the Citizen Kentucky project. This is a
win-win-win-win situation, for the university, for the students,
for the candidates and for journalism."
The forum is being held as part of Ryan's Freshman Discovery
Seminar course at UK, "Citizen Kentucky: Journalism and
Democracy." FDS courses, open only to first-term students,
provides intimate experiences inside and outside of class with
some UK's most famous professors, while also providing detailed
exploration of a problem at the core of one of 12 fields of
knowledge. The forum is open to the public and media, with
everyone encouraged to attend.
"The First Amendment deals with the power of assembly,"
Ryan said, "and that's the magic that can happen when
citizens can come together to talk about their community's future.
We're just trying to do some good for Lexington."
— Brad Duncan
'CITIZEN KENTUCKY' FOCUSES ON JOURNALISM AND
DEMOCRACY
April 11, 2001 – (Lexington, Ky.) – A cadre of nationally
recognized journalists, public figures and educators will gather
to discuss the role of the news media in American democracy on
Thursday, April 12, at the William T. Young Library.
Time magazine correspondent Bonnie Angelo, Courier-Journal
Editorial Director David Hawpe, Lexington Herald-Leader Publisher
Tim Kelly, Kentucky historian Thomas Clark and Kentucky Council on
Postsecondary Education President Gordon Davies are among 40
participants invited to “Citizen Kentucky: Democracy and the
Media.”
The two-part forum will feature sessions in the Toyota Reading
Room on the library’s second floor. The first is at 9 a.m. and
the second at 2 p.m. Leland “Buck” Ryan, director of the
School of Journalism and Telecommunications, will moderate the
sessions. The forum will be videotaped for an hour-long broadcast
on KET at a later date.
The forum is part of the fourth annual First Amendment Celebration
at the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. The
celebration is sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation, with
co-sponsors including the Kentucky League of Cities, the NewCities
Foundation, the Public Life Foundation of Owensboro, UK’s Office
of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, UK’s
Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation and the
Martin School of Public Policy and Administration.
The event is part of a daylong celebration of journalism at UK,
with the Kentucky Journalism Alumni Association holding its annual
Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame induction ceremony at noon at the
Hilary J. Boone Faculty Center and the annual Creason Lecture
being held at 8 p.m. at the Singletary Center for the Arts.
— Dan Adkins |
