Mumia Abu Jamal, a nationally-known journalist convicted in 1982 for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer, is bringing suit against National Public Radio. Abu Jamal claims that the cancellation of a series of commentaries he had contracted for with NPR before they were broadcast amounts to censorship by the publicly funded news network. Jamal claims that the network chose not to air the commentaries under pressure from U.S. Sen. Robert Dole and the Fraternal Order of Police. In a public statement, NPR officials replied that the decision not to air the commentaries was editorial discretion, not censorship.
