Demonstrators protest Rapid City Journal's editorial policies - KOTA Territory News
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About ten people came together Saturday afternoon to protest what they call unfair editorial policies at the Rapid City Journal.
The group demonstrated in front of the Journal building, saying the newspaper censored a recent editorial submission from Jim Kent about Indian boarding schools.
The Journal preemptively published a piece Friday that disputed the reason for not printing Kent's article.
The piece states the style, not the content, of Kent's writing kept it from being published.
But the protestors say there's a broader issue of the Journal covering only negative Native American stories.
"All we want is change," said United Urban Warrior Society's James Swan. "All we want from the Journal is fair reporting, non-biased reporting. We want to see positive things."
Friday's paper points to several recent positive articles, including powwow and Native American Day coverage.
Also on protestors' minds Saturday was the paper's policy of charging $15 for political letters to the editor, which demonstrators say harms free speech rights of low-income families.
"People that don't have $15 -- that's two and a half hours of take-home pay at minimum wage," said Jim Petersen of South Dakota Peace and Justice. "Are you going to feed your family or are you going to have a political voice? So we have a huge problem with that."
No one from the Journal was able to speak on camera Saturday, but the paper recently defended the policy by saying without it, political letters to the editor would be unpaid political ads.
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