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NEWARK, N.J., May 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --On Friday, two "mobile" electronic signs appeared on campus to engage students in the discussion of the Rutgers Observer editors who removed an Opinion piece from the paper's online presence and wrote a retraction the following week explaining their rationale. Unfortunately, by getting the facts wrong in the retraction, both the student journalist and the subject of the piece, Dr. Richard Kaul, are furious.

(Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130510/NY11815 )

Sidrah Bajwa, a Rutgers student, attended the first hearings of the case now being heard in a Newark court between the New Jersey Attorney General and Dr. Richard Kaul. She surmised that the $800,000 that the New Jersey Attorney General's office had spent so far on the case seemed wrong, as she has some interest in progressive medical approaches and is very conscious about the impact on education due to restraints and cuts in the State budget.

A couple of weeks ago, she submitted an Opinion piece for publication in the Observer about the waste of New Jersey taxpayer money and called on students to be aware of how they and their parents' public funds are spent in what has become known in medical circles as The Spine Turf Wars. The story was removed on April 26 from the online edition due to pressure from the attorney general's office. Zarna Patel, the Executive Editor, then published an Opinion in the April 30 issue, in which she suggests that Bajwa "may have lied", that her story was some sort of press release, and proceeded to repeat untrue bits of information about Dr. Kaul that had been long ago refuted but can still be found floating around the internet.

Kaul's attorney, Jeffrey Randolph, has written a letter to the Observer editors demanding a retraction be published for defaming and libeling his client. Bajwa, for her part, is pursuing the censorship of her opinion and the subsequent defamation of her character with the hierarchy of the University and has already met with the Dean, the Chancellor and others. Where this is all going is still unclear, but for now the students are riled and are demanding there be some attention paid to this issue, and others perpetrated by Rutgers Observer management and coverage.

For Further Information: Tameh Rohani 917.488.7124

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