In the Public Interest by Child Abuse Survivors and their Advocates in their Pursuit of Justice, Recognition, Recovery and Redress.
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Article Category: 2007 January
Description: The Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization is rightly credited with establishing important free speech precedent in the Uni
Article originally prepared on : 05 February 2007
The Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization is rightly creditedwith establishing important free speech precedent in the United States.Among other landmark cases, the organization secured decisionsrecognizing the right to avoid having the government force one to saythe Pledge of Allegiance, in West Virginia Board of Ed. v. Barnette, and recognizing the right to peaceably proselytize in Cantwell v. Connecticut. The recent documentary "Knocking" focuses on their contributions in this arena.
The Facts, Allegations, and Outcome in the Denmark Case
Thecase began when, in Fall 2004, one of Denmark's largest newspapers,Ekstra Bladet, ran a series of newspaper articles regarding credibleallegations of sexual molestation within the Jehovah's Witnesses, andof a cover-up. The articles' titles (as translated) included"Jehovah-Leader Hides Child Molesting," "Keep Quiet About SexualMolesting," and "Jehovah-Order: Keep Quiet About Child Molesting," aswell as others.
The newspaper reported that those who verycredibly claimed they were victims of childhood sexual abuse within theorganization were compelled to keep their claims secret. Like the Boston Globe'sseries on the Boston Archdiocese's cover-up of clergy abuse within theRoman Catholic Church, which ran five years ago, this series focusednot only on the actions of individuals, but on the organization-widepolicies that led to institutional secrecy about child abuseallegations. The series focused, as well, on the impact of thepolicies, and the underlying alleged abuse, on victims and theirfamilies.
The local Jehovah's Witnesses Branch OfficeCommittee, composed of seven members who govern the organization, suedthe newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, and its Chief Editor, Bent Falbert, forslander. They demanded 350,000 kroner and that the Chief Editor becriminally charged with slander. Last December, Judge Anne GretheStockholm rejected all of their claims, and ordered them to pay theother side's legal fees, which amounted to 50,000 kroner.
Thecourt reasoned that the topics addressed were newsworthy, and a matterof public interest, and that the stories discussing these topicscontained legitimate legal analysis.
Rulings in the Proceedings Against the Witnesses and Others in California
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church inCalifornia has made the same argument, and has also lost. Rightly so:Discussions of crimes allegedly committed by organization members arehardly the kind of religious communications the priest-penitentprivilege is meant to protect.
A Well-Deserved Oscar Nomination Emphasizes the Role of Free Speech in Ending Clergy Abuse and Gaining Justice for the Victims
Meanwhile, California is currently important in the fight againstclergy abuse in another way, as well: In Los Angeles,recently-announced Oscar nominations included a richly-deserved one forthe stark and disturbing documentary, "Deliver Us from Evil." As I discussed in a previous column,the film features troubling interviews with a priest child-abuseperpetrator, one Fr. O'Grady -- who was under the watch of L.A.'sCardinal Mahony. This film has so much power, it truly deserves to winthe Award.
Free speech and a free press - as well as opencivil discovery - are key to vanquishing clergy abuse and givingjustice to victims. When the Boston Globe broke the CatholicChurch scandal in the U.S. five years ago, very few even knew aboutclergy abuse outside the Church. Thus, it's unclear whether a shockingfilm like "Deliver Us from Evil" more likely would have been treated as an exception, rather than evidence of a deep, appalling institutional problem.
Now,not only has the Church proved to be incapable of keeping its ugliestsecrets, but its public relations campaign has utterly failed. The longera when no one would have dared portray the Church in the light that "Deliver Us from Evil" casts upon it, is gone for good.
TheJehovah's Witness lawsuit in Denmark shows the same internal dynamic asin the Catholic Church, and based on the allegations, the institutionshave adopted matching strategies: hide as much as possible and whenexposed, go on the offensive. Somehow, these institutions came tobelieve that they have a right to an internal, secret sphere where theycannot be held accountable for their culpability in the suffering ofchildren. Fortunately, both Danish and California courts, and theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are proving them to bevery wrong.
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Hegemony: The authority, dominance, and influence of one group, nation, or society over another group, nation, or society; typically through cultural, economic, or political means.
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