Y. police arrest reporter, take tape

PROVO — Brigham Young University officials are trying to sort out who was right and who was wrong Wednesday when university police arrested a student broadcast reporter.

Police also confiscated the tape in Clif Kelly's video camera when they placed him in handcuffs and took him to a campus holding cell.

The First Amendment generally protects journalists from police seizures, but at BYU the police department is part of the school, not a government entity.

The issue is further complicated because the student news organizations known as NewsNet — the Daily Universe newspaper and KBYU-TV news broadcasting — are student labs, not independent organizations.

Finally, there are questions about whether Kelly properly identified himself as a reporter — a standard ethical practice in the profession — when he approached the officer and began filming the man writing a jaywalking ticket to one of Kelly's friends.

Kelly covers the crime beat for NewsNet's TV broadcast and was returning to the Wilkinson Student Center from covering a court case when he saw Officer Carl Whiting with Karley Nelson near the bus stop on the building's east side.

Whiting told Kelly to turn off his camcorder. Based on video obtained by KSL-TV, Kelly did not attempt to identify himself when he started filming. After Whiting twice asked him to turn off the camcorder, Kelly said, "I might be doing a report on the tickets they give around campus. You go about what you're doing. I'll do my job and you do yours."

At least three times, Kelly mistakenly said the area was public property, which would give him broad rights to tape, but the sidewalk belongs to BYU, as does Campus Drive, the street between the Wilkinson Student Center and the J. Reuben Clark Law School.

"You're overstepping your bounds, sir," Kelly said on the videotape. "I'm sorry, I can film whatever I want here, and you can't stop me. You're a police officer. You should know the rules."

Asked to go to other side of the crosswalk, Kelly said, "Sir, don't be ridiculous."

Whiting repeatedly approached Kelly and asked him to move farther and farther back. When Whiting asked Kelly again to shut off the camcorder, he touched Kelly's arm.

"You're interfering with my ticket," Whiting said. "Shut it off, right now."

"Don't touch me," Kelly said.