Tribal Official Shuts Down Hoopa Valley Newspaper

Posted by Terry Francke, General Counsel | Jul 5, 2011 | Legal Issue: Freedom of the Press | 0 |

Sounding like a high school principal, the chairman of the Eureka-area Hoopa Valley Tribal Council has singlehandedly shut down what may be the last surviving Native American owned newspaper, citing financial problems that remain disputed and dissatisfaction with recent coverage of a murder, report Donna Tam and Kaci Poor in the Eureka Times-Standard. The act violates the tribe’s own constitutional protection, says a scholar of Native American press freedom, but only the tribe can correct the situation.

About The Editor

Terry Francke, General Counsel

Terry Francke has a 39-year history of helping journalists, citizens and public officials understand and use their First Amendment and open government rights. With CalAware, Francke has authored comprehensive and authoritative guidebooks to California law on access to government meetings and public records and the news gathering and publication rights of journalists. Focusing on these issues in public forum law, he supervises CalAware's legislative and litigation initiatives; conducts workshops on legal compliance; helps design public records audits; supports local sunshine ordinance drafting efforts; writes CalAware Today, a blog on current developments and proposals in the law and best practices; and answers countless queries by phone and e-mail from citizens, journalists, public officials and employees, and lawyers. Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution. Francke is a 1967 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a 1979 graduate of McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. Prior to his legal career, Francke worked as a weekly newspaper editor and in military and local government public affairs positions.

Search

Help our cause

Help Our Cause

$ Donation Amount:

Personal Info

First Name *

Last Name

Email Address *

Credit Card Info

This is a secure SSL encrypted payment.

Card Number *

CVC *

Cardholder Name *

Expiration *

Billing Details

Country *

Address 1 *

Address 2

City *

State *

Zip / Postal Code *

Donation Total: $25

SOS to All Attorneys

CalAware Members can use our Solicitation of Service (SOS) form to describe their legal problem and request an attorney’s response regarding representation or other services, and have that request sent in an individual email to every attorney in the Directory, setting a deadline for response.

Attorney SOS