Art, the Child, and The First Amendment: a Panel Discussion
Bob Chatelle
Event: Art, the Child, and the First Amendment (A Panel Discussion)
Date and Time: April 12 at 7 p.m.
Place: Room 107, Metcalf Science Center, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth
Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts.
Sponsor: Photographic Resource Center (PRC)
Moderator: Charles Ogletree, Esq., Harvard Law School
Panelists: Andrew Epstein, Esq., former President of the PRC Board; Harvey
Silverglate, Esq., former President ACLU of Massachusetts; Bob Chatelle,
Political Issues Chair of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO);
Anne Higonnet, Professor of Art History at Wellesley College; Laurence
Hardoon, Esq., prosecutor of the Fells Acres Day Care case; Tony Ferrante,
owner of Ferrante-Dege Photo Lab.
Background: The panel was inspired by the case of Toni Marie Angeli, a
Cambridge mother who took an introductory photography class at Harvard
Extension School. Angeli shot some innocent film of her son Nico and took it
to Zona Photographic Labs. Employees freaked at the sight of a
four-year-old's penis, and called the cops. Angeli was not docile when police
accused her of being a pornographer and child abuser and threatened to take
her son away from her. For standing up for her rights, Angeli was punished
with a month in prison and has been subjected to malicious personal attacks.
When the Angeli case begin to receive media attention, John Jacob, Director of
the PRC, was interviewed on the New England Cable News program, News Night.
Because I expected Jacob to defend Angeli's artistic and privacy rights, I was
astounded to hear him side with Zona. I have since learned that Zona has very
close ties with the PRC. One of the panel organizers, in fact, has just had
an exhibition portfolio and a set of images for a publisher personally
prepared by one of the Zona owners. Zona also offered to pay for at least
part of the panel-related expenses. Jacob apparently saw no ethical problem
in accepting money from Zona, but decided against taking it because the
program might not be entirely to Zona's liking.
The reason that the panel may not be entirely to Zona's liking is that, thanks
solely to the efforts of photographer Elsa Dorfman, three people have been
invited who are committed to defending freedom of expression: Harvey
Silverglate, Professor Higonnet, and myself.
Zona is trying hard to get their friends and supporters to attend this event.
I hope people will also attend who believe in freedom of expression and who
are not taken in by the destructive hysteria that rages around allegations of
sexual abuse and child pornography. In any case, the discussion should be
lively, especially since the Fells Acre case (prosecuted by Hardoon) is about
the most outrageous miscarriage of justice to have occurred in Massachusetts
since the Salem witch trials.
Bob Chatelle