Editors Group Slams School Action Against Student Newspaper

-- When a Kentucky Kernel reporter attempted to interview two walk-on players for the University of Kentucky basketball team -- without first going through the school's Media Relations office -- the university denied him access to a series of one-on-one interviews with other basketball players.

Hollis Towns, president of the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME), sent a letter to the school on August 30, 2011, protesting what the group calls UK's attempts to "bully" the student newspaper.

From the letter, addressed to athletic director Mitch Barnhart:

"Associated Press Managing Editors, a nationwide organization of newspaper editors and broadcast news directors, objects to your department’s reprehensible conduct in response to news coverage by The Kentucky Kernel of the basketball team’s addition of two walk-on players. Your department’s revocation of reporter Aaron Smith’s media access to team interviews amounts to no less than an attempt to bully the newspaper into submission and to censor news concerning operations of the University of Kentucky athletic department.

This is a level of abuse of free speech not tolerated at universities in other states and is particularly abhorrent at a taxpayer-owned institution. We urge you to restore the access of The Kentucky Kernel and Mr. Smith and to ensure that your department henceforth honors its accountability to [the] public."

Among those copied on the letter: Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, UK President Eli Capiluoto and Lexington Herald-Leader editor Peter Baniak.

Go to the Kentucky Kernel newspaper profile for more information about the newspaper.

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