Everything online journalists need to protect their legal rights. This free resource culls from all Reporters Committee resources and includes exclusive content on digital media law issues.
Gag order
An order issued by a judge commanding trial participants and at times members of the media to refrain from speaking about a legal proceeding; a gag order is a type of prior restraint
Two Georgia media organizations are asking a judge to dismiss an unusual gag order placed on 35 Atlanta Public School employees charged with altering standardized tests in a widespread cheating scandal.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News (WSB-TV) filed a joint motion to lift the gag orders on those charged in the cheating scandal. District Attorney Paul Howard agreed to lower the defendants’ bail bond amounts if the defendants agreed not to talk to reporters.
The new judge presiding over the James Holmes trial unsealed the highly coveted search and arrest warrants in the case on Thursday, providing the media with new details about the high-profile Colorado movie theater shooting.
A Fox News reporter is scheduled to appear before a Colorado judge on Monday to testify about who leaked her information regarding the notebook of movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes.
Despite a judge recently modifying a gag order in the case of alleged theater shooter James Holmes, journalists are having a difficult time accessing records to report on the high-profile case.
“We get lots of tiny bits and pieces and have to paste these parts together to make sense out of what seems like a senseless mass shooting,” Denver reporter Rick Sallinger said.
A Florida judge on Monday denied a proposed gag order that would muzzle all attorneys and law enforcement officers involved in the prosecution of George Zimmerman.
More than a dozen news media organizations are opposing a proposed gag order in the George Zimmerman prosecution that would silence all attorneys involved.
A Florida judge denied prosecutors’ attempts to seal court records and close future hearings in the prosecution of George Zimmerman, ruling in a hearing today that “this is an open court, this is a public case.”
Two Maine newspapers filed an objection Friday to a proposed protective order in a prostitution case that would prevent the discussion and dissemination of evidence and progress of the case.
A Kentucky judge earlier this week granted a local newspaper’s request to unseal records in a juvenile sexual abuse case that sparked widespread support for the victim after she publicly identified her alleged attackers.
Jefferson District Court Chief Judge Angela McCormick Bisig also ruled that all proceedings held in the case will be open to the public and allowed the news media to photograph in the courtroom.
The judge presiding over the fatal Colorado movie theater shooting case granted the release of about three dozen relevant court documents on Monday, but kept many of the records under seal.
