Since the program began in 1996, the committee has received 23 requests for financial assistance in legal cases involving decisions where the outcome could affect the newspaper industry as a whole.

Twenty requests have been approved for funding. Three requests for financial assistance have been denied.

"The fund is really making a difference, especially for smaller papers that may not have the money to battle a local school board or fiscal court all the way through the court system," said Lexington Herald-Leader assistant managing editor Tom Caudill, chairman of the Legal Defense Fund Committee. "I'm happy that we have been able to support newspapers in open meetings and open records cases and in other important issues."

A case involving The Elizabethtown News-Enterprise typifies the type of litigation the fund was designed to support.

The case began in the mid 90s when the newspaper's education reporter wanted to report on discipline problems in the local schools.

The reporter prepared an open records request and sent it to both local public school districts, Elizabethtown Independent Schools and the Hardin County School System.

The request asked for the number of students expelled from schools, the types of behaviors involved, the timeframe of the expulsions and the schools from which they were expelled.

"There was no request for the names of specific students or any other information that would identify specific students because we recognized the confidentiality of that," said then editor David Greer. "The Elizabethtown Schools complied with our request within three days. But Hardin County Schools refused citing privacy issues."

The newspaper appealed to the Kentucky attorney general who ruled in favor of The News-Enterprise saying the paper's request would not identify individual students - which seemed to be the major concern of the county school system.

But Hardin County Schools appealed to Hardin Circuit Court where Judge Steve Bland found in the school district's favor.

According to Greer, the newspaper's attorney, Kim Greene, believed the judge erred in misinterpreting the Federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. The paper appealed to the state Court of Appeals which sided with the attorney general and found in the paper's favor. The appeals court ruled that disclosure of the requested information would not lead to the identity of students or their parents.

Hardin County Schools have taken the case on appeal to the state Supreme Court. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled to be heard by the Kentucky Supreme Court on Nov. 15.

"I think it's shameful that the Hardin County Schools continue to use taxpayer money to deny taxpayers the right to know about discipline problems in taxpayer-supported public schools," said Greer, who's now publisher of The Kentucky Standard in Bardstown. "The public has a legitimate right to know what's happening in our public schools. The two extremes shown in this case -- one school system released the information almost immediately without question while the other system has fought doing so for several years and spent who knows how much in legal fees -- demonstrates how different the systems are in their openness.

"The paper never sought identities of individual students or their parents -- only information about trends among schools. The public has a legitimate interest in this information and the right to know."

Greene, who also serves as KPA General Counsel along with Jon Fleischaker, said the fund is filling a critical need.

"KPA's Legal Defense Fund has done wonders in its first four years," she said. "At last newspapers around the state are able to really fight for their First Amendment rights. Every time one newspaper challenges an improperly closed court room or the denial of public records it helps every other paper in Kentucky. It's exciting to be part of this."

Since early 1997, The Kentucky Standard in Bardstown has been involved in a legal battle involving carriers and unemployment insurance. The carriers filed for unemployment insurance even though the newspaper's policies indicate that carriers are not considered employees, but instead are independent contractors.

The courts up to this point have agreed with the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission that carriers are considered employees for unemployment insurance, and The Standard has appealed those decisions to the Court of Appeals. That court has heard oral arguments and its decision is expected in about a month.

"The Kentucky Standard situation shows exactly what the KPA Board was thinking when it approved the Legal Defense Fund concept in 1996," said KPA Executive Director David T. Thompson. "They talked about newspapers not having the financial resources to continue a legal struggle while government agencies don't give that a second thought. Those agencies have taxpayer dollars backing them up and probably think the newspaper's well will run dry long before taxpayer dollars are cut off.

"But The Kentucky Standard and Landmark Community Newspapers have held their ground, committed to seeing this issue through to the end and the Legal Defense Fund has been there to say, 'Don't give up!'"

"Since the case began, The Standard and Landmark Community Newspapers have spent more than $38,000 in legal fees," said Thompson, "fighting a case that has impact on every newspaper in the state that has carriers. The Legal Defense Fund has awarded just more than $19,000 in financial assistance in the past three years to the effort."

(This story was written prior to the Sept. 1 decision of the Court of Appeals in the Landmark case. See page 1.)