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Content related to the Center for Media Law and Policy’s activities and people.

Cleary Student Paper Competition Honors Attorney James Cleary, a Passionate Supporter of Journalism

By on February 27, 2020 in Center for Media Law and Policy

This year marks the second year of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy’s James R. Cleary Student Paper Competition. Cash prizes are awarded to the student authors of published papers that most creatively and convincingly propose solutions to significant problems in the field of media law and policy, including First Amendment speech and press issues.

The competition was made possible by James Cleary’s daughter, Dr. Johanna Cleary, a Ph.D. graduate of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism Media and a former Park Fellow. Kriste Patrow, a UNC Ph.D. candidate in the School, asked Dr. Cleary about her Dad and his legacy.

Q: So, can you start by telling me a little bit about the work your father did?

Cleary: Well, my Dad was in a general practice most of his life, but he always had a great interest in and passion for the media. In fact, the way he paid his way through his undergraduate degree and a lot of his law school expenses was by working in radio.

Dad, as a teenager, began working as a radio announcer in the 1940s. He worked at some smaller stations in Alabama and then a featured spot on one of the major stations in Birmingham, Alabama. His radio show, at the time he was doing it, was actually the number-one rated program in the country. He was part of a group that put the first television station on the air in Huntsville, Alabama, which was very much a growing city at the time. And he also was part of a partnership that put together the second newspaper in Huntsville.

So, he had this great love for media and a great interest in it. He also understood the importance of law to our society, and so he ultimately went on to law school and was a practicing attorney for about 56 years.

Q: What kind of work did he do as an attorney?

Cleary: Well, because my Dad was in a general practice, his media specific work was geographically determined.  Basically he was admitted to the group that could practice before the Federal Communications Commission. He did a lot of the legal work in terms of setting up the ownership for those stations, which is a pretty complicated process. So, from a very hands-on standpoint he was very committed to the importance of the media, and I think philosophically, the importance of the media to democracy. I think Dad really did believe in the Fourth Estate — that there is an important role in the press to play in preserving a democracy for us.

Q: So, he believed in the media’s role as a watchdog on government?

Cleary: The important thing that my father really believed in was an informed and educated population – the idea Aristotle had that informed people can make good decisions for themselves. That being informed just doesn’t happen by magic. There is a lot of work that goes into that: Work both on the part of the media and the part of the public, the consuming public.

Q: Can you tell me a bit about what inspired you to donate to the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy in particular?

Cleary: I am a product of the doctoral program there, and I was very fortunate to receive one of the Park Fellowships. So, I was very grateful to the School and to the Park family for having that opportunity. I could have gone to any number of different initiatives, but I knew the national reputation of the media law program there. I knew the individuals involved with the Center’s leadership there and certainly have the highest of opinions of them.

The Center was kind of getting up and running really at the time that my Dad visited UNC when I graduated. So, he had an idea of the quality of the program there. I think he highly approved of what was being done there and where they were going.

The importance of the press to our democracy just can’t be overstated and neither can the role that media law plays in making sure that stays the case. I mean, this isn’t just something that happens by luck and chance.

So, it was a collection of a lot of things. It just seemed to be the perfect match. I’m very pleased that they had the idea of creating this award in honor of my father. That’s very meaningful.

Q: What are your hopes for the Cleary Award moving forward?

Cleary:  That’s a good question. I think people are looking toward the emerging scholars to say “Where do we go? What are the things we need to know? What are the rules that we need to come up with? Where do we leave it alone? Where do we need to roll up our sleeves and get involved?” This time, more so than any I remember, students have the opportunity to shape the future. My hope for the award is that it will recognize the impact that student scholars are already having and encourage the potential they have to shape, certainly the media field, but really our democracy to a large extent.

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Tackling Race, Journalism and Viral Images in “Confederates”

By on February 5, 2020 in Center for Media Law and Policy, Journalism

“I think that people in this country – the people of good will, anyway – are aching for a real conversation about these very questions and I think maybe we can help them, you and I.”

So says Will, the main character and young black journalist of Suzanne Bradbeer’s award-winning play, CONFEDERATES, to his friend and source, Maddie, after she shares with him a controversial photo of her with a Confederate flag. In this gripping one-act play, Will tries to persuade Maddie, the white daughter of a presidential candidate, that he can be trusted to tell the story of her soon-to-be viral photo, released in an act of revenge by Maddie’s former boyfriend.

On Friday, Jan. 31, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, the UNC Department of Dramatic Art and PlayMakers hosted a reading of CONFEDERATES for about 50 guests in the Freedom Forum Conference Center, including students, faculty, friends of PlayMakers, and the playwright, Suzanne Bradbeer. The play was followed by a panel discussion about the themes in the play with Bradbeer, News & Observer political reporter Will Doran and senior journalism major Elliott Millner.

For the Center, the play was an amazing moment to explore a whole host of ethical and potential legal challenges faced by today’s journalists: how to handle sources we know; how to work in a field that faces tremendous financial pressures; how we talk or don’t talk about race in our work; how “cancel culture” derails conversations about our partisan times; and how the release of controversial images online can wreck lives, encourage death threats, and spark lawsuits.

The conversations were immeasurably bolstered by the performances of Vivienne Benesch, PlayMakers’ artistic director (Stephanie); Brandon Herman St. Clair Haynes from UNC’s Professional Actors Training Program (Will); and Tori Jewell from UNC’s Professional Actors Training Program (Maddie). The reading was produced by Alejandro Rodriguez, PlayMakers’ associate artistic director, and directed by New Jersey actor and director Laura Ekstrand.

The panel discussion that followed addressed how the Internet continues to change the way we work as journalists. The panelists tackled the challenges of writing about race and racial tensions in this moment, as well as the delicate “grey area” of dealing with sources we know.

The evening was a reminder of the power of theater to encourage conversations that are often difficult to have and bring big issues to the personal level, where we can feel them as well as think about them.

(Photos by Lois Boynton)

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The James R. Cleary Prize for Student Media Law and Policy Research 2019 Competition

By on January 12, 2020 in Center for Media Law and Policy

The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is now accepting submissions for the James R. Cleary Prize.  The annual award competition, which highlights the best student-authored scholarly articles on media law and policy related topics, honors the legacy of James R. Cleary, an attorney who practiced for 56 years in Huntsville, Ala.  He was particularly interested in the communications field and media law issues.  Cleary’s daughter, Johanna Cleary, is a 2004 Ph.D. graduate of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

You can read about last year’s winners, Austin Vining, a joint JD/Ph.D. student at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and College of Journalism and Communications, and Alexandra Baruch Bachman, from the University of North Carolina School of Law, here.

The prize competition is open to all college and university students. Up to three winners will be selected, with a first prize of $1,000, a second prize of $500, and a third prize of $250. The prizes will be awarded to the authors of published papers that most creatively and convincingly propose solutions to significant problems in the field of media law and policy, including First Amendment speech and press issues. All methodologies are welcome.

The new deadline for submission is April 15, 2020.

Rules

  1. The author of the submitted publication must have been enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate degree-granting program in the United States at the time the article was accepted for publication. This includes, but is not limited to, students enrolled in M.A. and Ph.D. programs, law school (including J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. candidates), and other professional schools (including M.B.A. candidates).
  2. The submitted paper must have been published in a law review or peer-reviewed journal during the 2019 calendar year.
  3. Each student may submit only one entry.
  4. Jointly authored papers are eligible, provided all authors meet the eligibility requirements for the competition. If a winning paper has more than one author, the prize will be split equally among the co-authors. No work with a faculty co-author will be considered.
  5. Each entry must be the original work of the listed author(s). The author(s) must perform all of the key tasks of identifying the topic, researching it, analyzing it, formulating positions and arguments, and writing and revising the paper.
  6. Papers will be evaluated based on a number of factors, including thoroughness of research and analysis, relevance to the competition topic, relevance to current legal and/ or public policy debates, originality of thought, and clarity of expression.
  7. The prize will be monetary. Winners will be required to submit a completed W-9, affidavit of eligibility, tax acknowledgment and liability release for tax purposes as a condition of receiving the cash prize.
  8. In the unlikely event that entries are of insufficient quality to merit an award, the Center for Media Law and Policy reserves the right not to award some or all of the prizes.

Submission Process

  • All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on March 15, 2020.
  • Entries must be sent via email to medialaw[at]unc.edu with the following in the subject line: “James R. Cleary Prize Submission: [Name of Author]”
  • Papers should be submitted in Portable Document Format (.pdf).
  • Entries MUST include a signed cover sheet that may be downloaded from the Center for Media Law Policy’s website here.

A review committee comprised of faculty and affiliates from the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy will review the submissions and determine the winning paper(s). The decisions of the committee are final. Winners will be notified and final results will appear on the Center’s website in late spring. Due to the large number of expected entries, the Center cannot contact all non-winning entrants.

For more information, please visit our Cleary Competition page. Submit your research to win this award!

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Center Student Spotlight: Ashley Fox

By on November 26, 2019 in Center for Media Law and Policy

Editor’s Note: Our media law graduate students are a huge part of the Center’s success. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be featuring the stories of current and past students as we lead up to the tenth anniversary of the UNC MA/JD program in 2020. Stay tuned for more details about that celebration.

by Ashley Fox

UNC MA/JD student (’21) and CITAP Fellow

This summer, I interned for the Office of Information Policy (OIP) at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington D.C. OIP oversees federal agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). To further this mission, the Office holds regular FOIA trainings for federal employees who are tasked with completing initial requests from the public, publishes and updates government-wide guidance on the FOIA, adjudicates administrative appeals for initial requests originating within the DOJ, and reviews annual reports from all federal agencies detailing their compliance with the FOIA. OIP is organized into four teams related to initial requests, appeals, litigation, and compliance.

During my internship, I primarily worked with the Appeals Team within OIP. There, I gained first-hand experience working within the administrative process by adjudicating administrative appeals on various FOIA issues, ranging from a DOJ component’s failure to respond to an initial request to a requester’s claim that FOIA exemptions were applied incorrectly. Moreover, I learned how some FOIA related disputes move beyond the administrative appeals process by conducting legal research for an ongoing FOIA litigation. Throughout these experiences, I really enjoyed seeing how attorneys within OIP carefully weigh the government’s desire to protect certain information against the public’s interest in disclosure while applying the language of the FOIA itself.

To support OIP’s goal of ensuring FOIA compliance by providing educational resources, I also attended multiple FOIA training sessions, assisted in publishing recent FOIA related court decisions on the office’s webpage, and assisted in updating OIP’s FOIA guidance to reflect changes in the law. Additionally, I reviewed proposed congressional legislation’s potential impacts on the FOIA and recommended comment from OIP to Congress when needed.

The summer internship program at OIP was wonderfully supportive. Each summer, OIP typically hires three to four legal interns through the DOJ’s larger Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP), which recruits law students for internships in various DOJ components. Although interns primarily work with one team within OIP, we had numerous opportunities to work with each team and collaborate with each other. The attorneys within OIP were enthusiastically invested in helping interns develop professionally, and they happily shared their own career journeys. I thoroughly enjoyed working with everyone within OIP, and I would highly recommend this internship to students interested in administrative law, access to information, and government transparency.

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Pedro X. Molina Speaking on The Art of Resistance

By on October 8, 2019 in Center for Media Law and Policy, First Amendment

In the midst of turbulent political times in the United States, it’s easy to forget that pressures on press freedom are everywhere these days. Tonight’s talk by Pedro X. Molina, which was co-sponsored by our Center, was a stark reminder of that.

In 2017 Pedro X. Molina was a prolific participant in the #FreeNseRamon campaign demanding freedom for fellow illustrator and political cartoonist, Ramón Nsé Esono Ebalé, who was imprisoned for his work criticizing his country’s government, Equatorial Guinea.

Pedro X. Molina, also known as ‘PxMolinA,’ is an internationally acclaimed political cartoonist, illustrator and journalist from Nicaragua. In December 2018, when the offices of news media outlet Confidencial were taken over by government forces and during a national crackdown on journalists and government critics, Molina fled his country. He and his colleagues continue to publish daily in Confidencial.com.ni, either from exile or from other locations in Nicaragua. In summer 2019, Molina won the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot Award in international journalism from Columbia’s School of Journalism. In 2018, Molina won the Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award from Cartoonists Rights Network International, as well as the Excellence in Journalism award from the Inter American Press Association.

Esono Ebalé’s work and Molina’s contributions to the #FreeNseRamon campaign are both featured in  ‘The Art of Resistance’ exhibition on display throughout the FedEx Global Education Center until December 13, 2019. Come hear/see Molina share his work in Nicaragua and his efforts to support freedom of expression everywhere.

Molina reminded those of us who attended his talk that fanaticism is rampant across the globe, and that citizens must advocate for human decency over ideology.

This event was sponsored by the Humanities for the Public Good Initiative, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Global Relations, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy, Institute for the Study of the Americas, Department of Romance Studies and UNC Global.

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