Ecos Face Defamation Suit
For Attack On Official

HELENA, Mont. — Environmental activist groups are used to attacking their opponents with impunity, leveling the wildest of charges and then dancing away unscathed when those claims turn out to have been patently false. Now some of them may want to give that tactic a little thought.

Montana Political Practices Commissioner Ed Argenbright has sued an official of an environmental group for making comments that he says accuse him of fraudulent and unethical conduct.

In a District Court complaint filed here last week, Argenbright said a published statement by Julia Page of Northern Plains Resource Council the previous week was false, malicious and defamatory.

He said she and her organization should pay for the alleged damage to his reputation.

Page, chairwoman of the Northern Plains, said she merely responded to a lawsuit Argenbright had filed against supporters of a water-quality initiative, charging they violated campaign finance laws.

"I gave a reaction to a statement of a public official," she said. "Aren't we allowed to react to public statements?"

Argenbright's suit against her could have a chilling effect on citizens' ability to comment on what government does, claimed Page, who lives in Gardiner. "It's a bad thing. If I'm not allowed to speak out in reaction to an action by a public official, then so much for free speech."

Page's comments last week were made to The Associated Press after she learned Argenbright had sued Northern Plains and other environmental groups that had backed an unsuccessful ballot measure last year to toughen water-quality standards for some mines.

The suit alleged a failure to report spending related to a "public education" project by backers of Initiative 122. The Public Education for Water Quality Project was affiliated with Northern Plains Resource Council, and its steering committee included representatives of the other environmental groups named as defendants in the suit.

Page accused Argenbright last week of working on behalf of the mining industry to intimidate environmental groups that supported the initiative.

"We see this as old-fashioned bullying tactics," she said. "It's an attempt to harass us into never doing this kind of thing again.

"He's doing their bidding," Page said, referring to mining companies.

Argenbright's damage suit claims Page's statements accuse him of a "lack of integrity, dishonesty, collusion and conspiracy to violate statutes and regulations for his own gain or that of others."

The comments injured Argenbright's reputation for honesty and integrity, and hampered his ability to do his job, the suit said. Also, Page's statements exposed Argenbright to "public hatred, contempt, ridicule or obloquy," caused him emotional distress and challenged his qualifications to hold office, according to the complaint.

The suit asks for a jury trial and does not specify the amount of damages sought.