Napster, profanity, the Kennedy assassination and freedom of expression on campus were among topics discussed during the First Amendment Festival yesterday in the HUB Auditorium.

The festival featured panels of experts, journalists, lawyers and professors discussing the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.

Retired New York Times reporter Tom Wicker also talked about campaign finance reform, his experiences with reporting and civil liberty issues.

The role of the first amendment on the Internet was debated repeatedly through the day, starting with a panel that addressed how the rights apply to issues like Napster, Internet pornography, student Web pages and DVD movies.

Panelists compared Napster and controversial Web sites to information available in a public library.

"Imagine books in your library," said Robin Gross, a lawyer specializing in cyberspace. "They don't censor you or ban you from those books."

During a panel that dealt with free expression on campuses, panelists talked about the way the First Amendment has been interpreted in colleges throughout the United States.

One of the topics the panelists addressed was the weekend arrest of a man wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the words, "Fuck Petrol."

Some students passed out fliers and wore shirts that said, "Fuck Censorship" to protest the charge of disorderly conduct the man received.

Clay Calvert, assistant professor of communications and law at Penn State, said the man has a strong case.

"There's nothing disorderly about it. It's just speech," Calvert said.

The final panel focused on the freedom of the press. When asked whether victims of assault have the right to remain anonymous, Michael Gartner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, said no.

"My position ... is to name both the person who is accused and the accuser," he said. "There is an issue of journalistic fairness in there."

Some students objected to Gartner's position.

"I don't think they have the right to invade privacy," said Sarah Tooma (junior-journalism).

Wicker addressed the concern about technology and its effect on the future of civil rights.

"Technology is changing the world we live in so that we're going to have adapt and protect the values we hold today," he said.

Wicker also answered questions from Ken Paulson, executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and senior vice president of The Freedom Forum.

Wicker served as a White House correspondent and was in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He was also present at the 1971 Attica prison riots, and talked about both experiences.

He recalled his involvement in covering the Kennedy assassination as one with very little eyewitness information. But he did describe seeing the President's wife walk beside her husband's coffin, with her hand resting on it and blood still on her clothes, as Kennedy's body was taken from the hospital.

Wicker also talked about how he felt during his reporting.

"It wasn't so much grief, I didn't know the President," he said, "I was simply shocked at the thing."

Wicker, one of the reporters called in to mediate during the Attica riots, used it as an example of an exception to the rule that journalists should merely observe.