NPPA's First Amendment Attorney Is Named Gannett Senior VP, General Counsel

 

WASHINGTON, DC (August 16, 2006) – Attorney Kurt Wimmer, who for several years has donated his time and expertise to the National Press Photographers Association as pro bono counsel on issues relating to the First Amendment and press freedoms, has been named a senior vice president and general counsel of Gannett Co. Inc. The appointment is effective August 21.

Wimmer, the first attorney to win NPPA’s Joseph A. Sprague Award (in 2003), worked as a photojournalist, copy editor, and reporter after getting his journalism degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, MO, and a masters degree in communications policy from the Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, NY. His law degree is also from Syracuse University.

As a Gannett senior vice president and general counsel, Wimmer becomes a member of the Gannett Management Committee, the company’s advisory group of top executives.

Wimmer says the Washington, DC, law firm of Covington & Burling LLP will continue to act as pro bono counsel for NPPA in First Amendment matters after his move to Gannett, “and I plan to remain involved with photojournalism” he says. Wimmer told News Photographer magazine that the new NPPA point person at Covington & Burling will be attorney Steve Weiswasser, a partner in their First Amendment practice who was formerly general counsel for ABC.

Gannett Co. Inc. owns 90 daily newspapers, including USA Today, 1,000 non-daily publications, 22 television stations, multiple Web sites, and in the United Kingdom owns Newsquest, the UK’s second-largest newspaper company publishing 17 daily newspapers among its 300 titles.

Wimmer has been a partner of Covington & Burling since 1995 and managed their London office from 2000 to 2003. He is president of the Media Law Resource Center’s Defense Counsel Section, and he’s advised journalists and media clients in 18 countries including Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Israel, and Sweden.

In 2005, Wimmer led a seminar at NPPA’s Northern Short Course in Reston, VA, that examined the erosion of First Amendment rights for photojournalists following 9/11. The problem, Wimmer told attendees, is that concerns for national security have led law enforcement officials to believe they can stop photographers who are clearly capturing public scenes “pretty much whenever they feel like it. Often we've seen them cuff people and put them in the car, then release them after a few hours or so with no charges. Which, unfortunately, they can get away with."

Wimmer has been a staunch supporter of a federal shield law to protect journalists and championed the “Free Flow of Information Act of 2005” that was introduced in the Senate as S. 340 and in the House as H.R. 581. “The bill would create a federal journalists’ privilege under which journalists could not be required to divulge confidential sources by federal courts or other entities. Of more practical value to photojournalists, it also would create a privilege for newsgathering materials – including photographs, digital files, video outtakes, negatives and all other documents,” Wimmer said.

In January 2006, Wimmer wrote NPPA’s legal brief which was filed with the New Jersey Transit Authority voicing NPPA’s formal opposition to their proposed photography ban. As a result of NPPA’s legal actions and its role in organizing protests and opposition to the possible ban, the transit authority withdrew its plan. Alicia Wagner Calzada was president of NPPA at the time. She said, “Our thanks go to attorney Kurt Wimmer, who wrote our legal brief and made a very strong argument for our case.”

NPPA opposed the ban because it would, in Wimmer’s opinion, violate the First Amendment rights of photojournalists and other photographers; the ban would not achieve New Jersey Transit’s goal of enhancing national security or passenger safety by preventing intelligence gathering activities on New Jersey Transit property; and it would impair the ability of photojournalists to perform their job effectively. His brief also made the point that the proposed rule changes would not leave any alternative means for photographing on New Jersey Transit’s property, and that the proposed ban by itself was unconstitutional.

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