Daily Illini Editor Fired Over Cartoons

The former editor-in-chief of the University of Illinois’ Daily Illini is spending his spring break on campus, catching up on the work he missed during a month-long investigation that resulted in his dismissal by the newspaper’s board of directors last week.

Acton H. Gorton, a senior majoring in communications, said in a telephone interview yesterday that “the whole investigation was sham. It was just a sham.”

Gorton was suspended with pay last month along with the editor of the opinion page, Chuck J. Prochaska, for their decision to reprint controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in the Illini’s Feb. 9 issue.

The cartoons—originally published by Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper—resulted in world-wide riots by Muslims, some of which turned violent. Newspapers across France and Europe reprinted the cartoons in support of the freedom of the press.

Four of those cartoons appeared in The Harvard Salient on Feb. 8.

In the editor’s note that accompanied the cartoons, Gorton wrote that his decision to republish them was meant to inform readers. “By refusing to run the cartoons, Americans have no idea how ‘offensive’ they are. The ensuing death threats, riots, murders and laying siege to embassies, leave most of us confused and appalled,” he wrote.

A coalition of more than 15 organizations and community members at the university held a peaceful demonstration on the campus’s main quad in response to the cartoons, prompting the board of directors of Illini Media, the company which owns the newspaper, to suspend Gorton and Prochaska.

Prochaska could not be reached for comment this weekend, but according to a Chronicle of Higher Education report, Prochaska was invited to return to the paper and refused.

“If I go over the story one more time I might die,” wrote Prochaska in an e-mail to The Crimson last month.

When asked what recourse he would take, if any, Gorton said that suing the board for defamation and wrongful dismissal are among the options he is considering, but added that “it’s a very slow process. [My attorney and I] want to make sure everything is done properly.”

Junaid M. Areef, Gorton’s attorney and member of the Muslim Bar Association, told The Crimson last month that Gorton’s decision to reprint the cartoons was justified.

“It’s important for these types of things to be discussed and to be brought into the public sight,” Afeef said. “There is a lot of spoken and written word and art that is extremely hateful, and it wouldn’t serve our interests as a society to ignore that by saying, ‘that’s very offensive so we shouldn’t talk about it.’”