This was in response to last semester's controversy over the Ka Leo sponsored mural surrounding the renovated parts of Campus Center.
Well, one of the murals protested against the new telescope (sponsored by UH) on Mauna Kea. The Ka Leo staff covered up the written message on that mural! That obviously pissed off a lot of campus activists.
But that's not the only problem that Ka Leo O Hawaii had with the issue of free speech. I had a problem with the Ka Leo O Hawaii's editors when I submitted an opinions article arguing for the need to have the campus security armed. That article got rejected for being "too paranoid"
I blogged about those issues at http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/10/problems-at-ka-leo-again.html
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The discussion panel included Jeff Portnoy (UH regent/lawyer/sportscaster), Gerald Kato (UH journalism professor) and Roger Fonseca (ACLU member).
The host was faculty advisor James Gonser. Also there was Ka Leo O Hawaii editor-in-chief Bianca Bystrom Pino.
Of course, the forum stated off with the controversy over the murals.
Jame Gonser showed a KITV news clip about the mural controversy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kctg2ZAIV44
Then the artists in the mural spoke up.
They were ANGRY about a UH staff member confronting them while they were painting the mural. It was mentioned that it was a European-American male staff member who got in the face of a Native Hawaiian female artist. So that brought up the racial and sexism issue.
They were ANGRY that the even though the forum was about their mural, that the artists themselves weren't invited on the discussion panel.
They were ANGRY that the university was disrespecting the Native Hawaiian culture, mentioning the Mauna Kea telescope construction desecrating their land, and also mentioning past battles Ka Leo O Hawaii had with Native Hawaiian activists.
One of them said about the Ka Leo O Hawaii, that the newspaper's name is Hawaiian for The Voice of Hawaii but that they didn't respect the voices about UH students.
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Then...........................................it was my turn to speak.
I stood up and mentioned that around the same time the mural controversy was going on, I put up flyers around campus stating this
Ka LeoDoesn’t just censor murals
They also censored an opinion articleexpressing the need for armed campus security
The Editors refused to publishsaying it was too paranoid!
Their faculty advisor is a gun-phobic personwho says an armed campus security is “scary”
I think what’s even scarier is if an incident happenand the campus security can’t do anything but wait for help
Read and judge for yourself!
Within that same flyer, I put the QR code and tiny url for my blog post http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/10/problems-at-ka-leo-again.html
When I spoke, I was standing up, raise my arm up high with the flyer in my hand.
I told the audience I dont have extra copies (and apologized for that) but that they come to me after the forum so they can scan the QR code or copy the tiny url listed.
At that point, I was on a roll. In a very loud agitated voice, I mentioned what they flyer was about.
I mentioned that my article on having armed campus security was rejected because the editors said it was "too paranoid".
I mentioned that as being a case of the Ka Leo rejecting an article because it didn't conform to popular opinion.
I emphasized that my article had citations to back up the facts mentioned in the story. I emphasized that lower-level editor Doorae Shin already corrected whatever grammar mistakes were there. I emphasized that the article didn't slander anyone and wasn't written for the sake of offending anyone.
Then I went back to what one of the mural artists said about the Ka Leo O Hawaii editors, stating that the editors are violating the spirit of the newspaper being the voice of the students at the University of Hawaii.
I also went back to the point Jeff Portnoy said earlier denouncing any act that censors a political opinion.
Then I emphasized again that the Ka Leo O Hawaii editors were being hypocritical in claiming for free speech but yet refused to publish an article expressing an unpopular opinion that goes against the lefty-pacifist viewpoint that is popular on campus.!
I said all of this in a loud, agitated, passionate voice!
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While I was speaking, I could see some of the mural artist nodding in agreement with what I said.
While I was speaking, I could see the cameras pointed at me and flashing. I also saw a video camera pointing at me. ( a YouTube moment?)
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Then I was done. James Gonser, the forum's host (and a person criticized on the flyer and my blog post) mentioned "he's referring to an article that he sent that didn't get published".
Then the Ka Leo O Hawaii's Editor-in-Chief (Bianca Bystrom Pino, whom I never met before) stating there was a meeting on my article with the editing team, and that claimed it wasn't rejected for political purposes, but that it needed revisions (which I didn't agree with and refused to make).
It was so obvious that Pino was lying when she stated that the article wasn't rejected for political purposes. It was so obvious that I felt I didn't even have to point it out the audience! I pretty much trusted the audience to know Pino is practicing the usual cover-up tactics that we usually associate with corrupt politicians who got caught.
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Jeff Portnoy stated that university newspapers in general are in a bind, because they have more restrictions placed on them as compared to regular newspaper.
Portnoy also stated that from a legal standpoint, university newspapers (or any newspaper) are not obligated to print anything that comes to them.
While Portnoy was correct from a legal standpoint, it is damn obvious that Ka Leo O Hawaii (um........The Voice of Hawaii) was violating the spirit of their name when they refused to print an opinion article because it was "too paranoid".
Then another panel member (I already forgot if it was Kato or Fonseca) responding to Portnoy's point about the bind the university newspapers are in. That panel member stated that being that Ka Leo O Hawaii is a part of a government agency, that they have to post various viewpoints, otherwise it would look like the government is endorsing one viewpoint over another.
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Afterwards, the discussion moved on to other topics. Hawaiian Studies professor Jon Osorio spoke about the mural controversy. Then Bianca Bystrom Pino showed a video about a Free Speech that was posted on campus where people could write whatever they wanted. (I only found out about the poster after the fact).
Then it was over.
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As for the reaction to my speech, a couple sitting in the back of me asked to look at my flyer. I showed them flyer, and one of them scanned the QR code.
Afterwards, I talked to Sarah Yap, one of the UH Campus Center staff members who worked in the Student Activities office. I already had a previous discussion with her about my flyer and my conflict with the Ka Leo editors. Yap said it was a good thing that I went to the forum and spoke up about this issue.
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Last semester, I took a class on Intellectual Freedom. The campus mural controversy came up in that class on the day the controversy started.
I was still in the middle of deciding how shall I respond to the editor's rejection. With the mural controversy going on, I decided to refuse to conform to the editor's suggestion and posted the flyers around campus.
So, was I going to bring that topic up in the Intellectual Freedom class? Then I thought "with those flyers all around campus, someone would bring up the topic in class. I'll let them bring up the topic first" . But nobody did!
Oh well!
