Presentation to Professor Emeritus Bob McGiffert
of the Montana Free Press Award, April 5, 2002

by Journalism Professor Clem Work

Last August, the House Majority Leader, Paul Sliter, was killed near Helena when a car driven by Shane Hedges, a top aide to Gov. Martz, rolled over on a mountain road. Hedges was drunk. The ensuing investigation indicated that one or more state officials may have tried to lie to cover up Hedges' role as the driver and also detailed the role played by Martz herself in taking Hedges home from the hospital despite police orders and in washing his blood-stained clothes. None of this would have come to light if the Montana press had not insisted on access to the investigatory files, which were handed over after a suit was filed and a settlement was reached.

The man whom we are honoring tonight did not play a direct role in any of this, but his fingerprints, so to speak, are all over it. For years, while teaching media law here at UM, he was pretty much Montana's lone expert in mass media law, with his special passion being the people's right to know about their government. He once wrote, "To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, the doors of government must be unhinged from time to time by the sledgehammer of a free press."

Bob, who retired from full-time teaching in 1991 after 25 years on the faculty, tried to imbue his students in the law of journalism with the same passion. He was a teacher who is still remembered and revered as, in the words of a former dean, "an educator of unusual acumen and intelligence." His lectures were dramatic, enlivened by songs, World War II ditties like "Keep Mum, Chum," about censorship during the war and even "little explosive things I got in my stocking" as he later explained.

As one student said in an evaluation, "McGiffert is lively and sleeping is difficult."

One student who clearly took to heart McGiffert's message about the people's right to know was Chuck Johnson, who went on to become head of the Lee State Bureau in Helena and perhaps Montana's premier reporter today. When reporters had media law questions in those days, they called McGiffert, Chuck has recalled. So it comes as no real surprise that Chuck was the driving force behind obtaining those investigatory files in Helena this year. As I said, McGiffert's fingerprints are all over it.

Bob also served for many years on the board of directors of the FOI Hotline, organized to help journalists in Montana secure the right of the public to information about their government. By that time, there were beginning to be lawyers in the state who knew what they were talking about and who were willing to to help reporters gain access to meetings and to documents, thus taking over the role that Bob had himself played informally.

I want to conclude by telling you of the key role Bob played in the 1972 Constitutional Convention framing of Article II, Section 9, known as the Right to Know provision, which says the public should be able to attend government meetings and examine public documents except when the demands of individual privacy clearly exceed the public's right to know.

Never shy about expressing his opinion, Bob vociferously opposed the provision. Why? Because the privacy exclusion would be an open invitation to public officials to deny the citizen and the press access to records and meetings. The privacy provision, he argued, could result in an endless series of costly and indecisive lawsuits in the courts."

McGiffert lost. The provision was enacted and ratified. And guess what--there has been an endless series of costly and indecisive lawsuits in the courts. The press has been successful with many of them, but it's like treading water, keeping your head above water. Bob was right, the lawsuits will continue. John Kuglin, AP bureau chief in Helena, who's here tonight, says "Many of us wish McGiffert had carried the day."

For more than 35 years, Bob McGiffert has lived in and made his mark on Montana. Tonight, we're honoring him for only a fraction of his contribution to our society. We'r e not even mentioning his brilliance as an editor, long-distance runner, raconteur, skydiver, dramatist, expert on world affairs and all-around curmudgeon.

Bob, for outstanding efforts in support of the principle of free expression in Montana, the Schools of Journalism and Law of the University of Montana present you

THE MONTANA
FREE PRESS AWARD

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