Federal appeals panel rejects college newspaper's challenge of ad rules

The Associated Press

06.08.00

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PHILADELPHIA — A federal appeals court has rejected a college newspaper's challenge to a state ban on alcohol advertisements in school publications.

The Pitt News, a student-run newspaper at the University of Pittsburgh, claimed the rule violated its First Amendment right to free speech.

But a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled June 6 that the economic effect of the ban does not violate the paper's constitutional rights.

Under the Pennsylvania law, publications related to educational institutions including newspapers, yearbooks and sports programs — cannot run advertisements that list the prices of, or otherwise promote, alcoholic drinks. The same sanctions apply to college radio and television stations.

The law does allow ads that give the names and addresses of bars, clubs and restaurants that serve alcohol.

Those who place the proscribed ads are subject to fines from $100 to $500 or up to three months in jail for a first offense.

The paper argued that the law cuts off a source of revenue, effectively restricting the amount of news it can publish and threatening its ability to purchase new equipment and make renovations to its facilities.

"The fact that The Pitt News is a newspaper does not give it a constitutional right to a certain level of profitability, or even to stay in business at all," the appeals panel wrote.

Larry Frankel, the executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which filed the sued on behalf of the newspaper, said it was too early to say whether it would appeal the decision.

"I think it (the decision) raises some troubling questions," Frankel said. "If the government can reduce the revenue of a newspaper and shut it down, isn't that government censorship?"

Hal Turner, editor of the newspaper when the lawsuit was initiated, said the decision was "so ludicrous, I can't even tell you how frustrating it is."

"The fact that we're part of an educational institution shouldn't matter," Turner said. "More than two-thirds of our readership was over 21. We were on racks next to publications that had much higher readership, all with boatloads of alcohol advertising."

Frankel said legislators would never pass such a law for regular, non-student newspapers.

"It smacks of another symbolic move by legislators to show how tough they are on some social issue, except all they're doing is hurting student newspapers," Frankel said. "They would be hard pressed to show it has reduced alcohol consumption one iota."