SPJ Friend or Foe?
by Christine Stuart | January 11, 2007 10:01 PM
Posted to Media Matters
Freelance reporter and political activist Ken Krayeske was surprised to learn Thursday that a group he’d considered to be an ally had posted on its blog his personal information and firsthand account of his arrest during the governor’s parade last week.
Krayeske had applied to the Society of Professional Journalists legal defense fund, and had not expected the information in his application to be posted publicly. The information has since been taken down by SPJ’s legal defense committee, but it had remained available for most of the day despite a call from Krayeske to SPJ Legal Defense Fund Chairman Dave Aeikens before he relented.
“I regret putting some of his personal stuff up there,” Aeikens said around 4 p.m. Aeikens, who also is an editor at the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota, returned a call from CTNewsjunkie to report that Krayeske’s application had been removed from public view, and that a summary would be uploaded in its place.
During the time it took Aeikens to decide to take down the application. Krayeske began to set up an online defense fund on his web site. Click here for more information on his independent fundraising effort. While it was available on the SPJ blog, Krayeske’s application received 85 views. Those who came across it could have learned what Krayeske had to eat in jail last Wednesday, his grade point average at the Quinnipiac University Law School, his home address and phone number, and how much his attorney, Norman Pattis, is planning to charge to represent him.
Aeikens said they’ve only had a blog for a couple of months and this was the first grant application they received since the blog originated. He said the organization is committed to openness and as such they had planned on posting all grant applications. Krayeske’s application received five comments. The first comment on the SPJ blog that included Krayeske’s application was from Connecticut blogger Spazeboy, who asked: “Can anyone contribute to the fund? If so, how?”
The next comment was from attorney Patricia Kane, who questioned SPJ’s intention in posting the application. “Your posting of a confidential application looks like a hostile act to me, as well as a violation of Ken’s privacy.”“For a professional group to do this is beyond my understanding. It serves no public purpose and is inappropriate,” she added.
Aeikens responded to Kane’s comment. “No hostility intended. We are taking this request seriously,” Aeikens wrote. “SPJ is an organization based on openness. In addition to believing that government actions should be open we believe our members have a right to know about our organization’s actions, including who is applying for LDF grants and under what circumstances.”
Mike Knaak, another member of the SPJ legal defense fund, replies “As to privacy … are you kidding? Krayeske has stepped into the public debate and is asking for money from an organization that believes in open discussion.” Aeikens said SPJ has appointed a local three-member committee to look into the circumstances surrounding Krayeske’s arrest. He said a local team will submit a report to the legal defense fund committee that will make a determination whether to give Krayeske the funding.
Aeikens said they will be looking at whether Krayeske was acting as a journalist or political activist at the time of the arrest. “His political activism makes this more difficult for us,” Aeikens said. But he added that the SPJs recently gave $30,000 to Josh Wolf.Wolf, the independent journalist and blogger who was jailed when he refused to cooperate with a federal grand jury seeking his testimony and his unpublished video out-takes of a July 2005 anti-G8 demonstration.
Comments (3)
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson | January 11, 2007 11:01 PM
This could be a national test case in disguise. There is no conspiracy theory on this one, it just has been business as usual, but this case is just a little more outrageous than the normal across the board citizen abuse.
You never know who is related to who, and who is hiding what in official circles. Picking up the pieces of a broken life take precedence when you are a victim of official misconduct, false arrest, and false imprisonment. I was maliciously investigated, falsely arrested, and you paid for it all, including my jail experience as a political prisoner in Connecticut and the rigged trial.
I, Steven G. Erickson, had 3 mortgages I was current on, a thriving small business built over 2 decades, all went poof when I was critical of police and the courts in Connecticut newspapers proposing legislation to fix the problems to elected officials.
I hope Ken does not have his life crash as mine has. Should I never get a decent job, a home of my home, or most rents for the rest of my life for just wanting ethical police and courts in Connecticut?
Posted by: kerri | January 12, 2007 2:01 AM
poetic justice.
See the article he has on his website about "Laura." The information in that piece was not supposed to be public either.
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson | January 12, 2007 5:01 PM
The Connecticut State Police have a "Target List" if you are on there "Hit List" or on their "Nixon style Enemies List" you will be made into toast.
Criminals can be ignored as enemies to the police doing as they please, when these please, having an unlimited budget are pursued for objecting.
Businesses, families, and individuals will continue to leave, not move to Connecticut, and will expose the truth to others as long as Connecticut Police, Connecticut Courts, and elected officials have no ethics and no desire to serve the people whose taxes pay them.
The rich, corrupt, and connected should not continue to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.