My March 18 post regarding DLNR’s ban on photographing human remains more than 50 years old was cited by The Volokh Conspiracy blog under its category, “Freedom to gather information.”
The Volokh Conspiracy describes itself as a group blog. Most authors are law professors.
The comments left by readers make for some interesting weekend reading. One comment links to the Photo Attorney blog’s discussion of similar cases.
The discussion continues.
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I really enjoyed all the haoles trying to “explain” things like `okinas- the all said it was an apostrophe and used one to show what it was- and the use of a “w” in Hawaiian… all wrong of course.
Did any photographed human remains actually appear in the newspaper?
What I recall seeing was a photo of sandbags marking a place where bones were said to have been found.
At any rate, purporting to ban photographing a public shoreline that is in plain view to any member of the public who wanders by is obviously ridiculous, and anyone overseeing an entire state agency should know better.
The dubious legal argument should also raise concerns, as should the fact that the news media apparently decided not to follow up and challenge the assertion or publicly explain the situation to the public. Is none of this newsworthy?
Is the state sticking by the purported ban? Would this be an issue for the OIP to interpret?
All that being said, it can certainly be argued that it was unnecessary and insensitive for the newspaper to include a photo that was sure to offend some, or that doing so was simply in bad taste. One wonders whether the paper received angry letters to the editor that were suppressed. That would hardly be surprising.
I really enjoy rejecting racist comments in the year 2011.
Is it just me or has everyone forgotten how important it is to respect and protect the culture of our home? The iwi are so, so important to the Hawaiian people. Why can we not respect that?
Ian, I had to go read the comments on that article because you enjoyed them. I had to stop reading them because I think that’s the best thing to do when I start to clench my teeth and my fists! If some of those were attorneys, it just goes to show that I missed my calling! That’s not the first time that I’ve thought as much!
However, I do love it when I realize that I’m kind of intelligent after all! 😉