Saturday, June 30, 2007

Free Speech Victory in Washington State

We read:

"A unanimous Washington state supreme court ruling, issued this morning, reversed a lower court ruling that held radio commentary by Seattle's KVI-570's Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson made "in-kind" contributions when they promoted an anti-gas tax voter initiative on their shows in 2005.

This is all a bit hard to follow at first but it is a case of politicians attacking a radio show with the claim that political comments made on the show are a form of advertising and should be treated as such -- with all the restrictions that implies. It was a heavy attack on free speech but the State court unanimously gave it the boot. The judges said:

"Today we are confronted with an example of abusive prosecution by several local governments. San Juan County and the cities of Seattle, Auburn, and Kent (hereinafter Municipalities) determined to file a legal action ostensibly for disclosure of radio time spent discussing a proposed initiative. This litigation was actually for the purpose of restricting or silencing political opponents and was quickly dismissed after the filing deadline for the initiative

Source