Lecture on Media Ethics, April 16

Jane Kirtley, noted scholar in the field of media ethics, will give a lecture, "Media Ethics: An Oxymoron?" at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 16, in Ferris Lounge, Seymour Union, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Knox College Journalism Program. While at Knox, Kirtley also will meet informally with Knox students and present a workshop on ethical issues for student media.

Kirtley is the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law in the School of Journalism, and Director of Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, at the University of Minnesota.

Kirtley will discuss the First Amendment protections that give journalists what she calls "the right to be wrong," as well as how unethical behavior may lead to less legal protection.

Prior to her current positions, Kirtley was executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Virginia. Kirtley received bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney and as a newspaper reporter, and writes the column "The Press and the Law" for the American Journalism Review.

Kirtley received the Distinguished Service Award from the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and The 1994 John Peter Zenger Award for Freedom of the Press and the People's Right to Know from the University of Arizona.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 47 states and 48 countries. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.