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    Digital Journalist's Legal Guide
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    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.

    D.C. Cir.

    Tapes played in open court are public, regardless of crime law

    Page Number: 
    13

    From the Winter 2000 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 13.

    The News Media and The Law, Winter 2000

    Wiretap law beats First Amendment challenge

    Feature
    Page Number: 
    4

    From the Fall 1999 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 4.


    In late September, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. (D.C. Cir.), reinstated a civil lawsuit between two members of Congress over the disclosure to the press of the contents of an illegally intercepted telephone call.

    The News Media and The Law, Fall 1999

    Agencies allowed to establish own policies for the deletion of electronic records

    Feature
    Page Number: 
    13

    From the Fall 1999 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 13.


    When the Archivist of the United States told federal agencies to delete electronic records if they had made paper or electronic copies for files, watchdog groups were horrified. They sued, trying to force the archivist to limit destruction of the electronic records.

    The News Media and The Law, Fall 1999

    'Personal attack,' 'political editorial' rules challenge goes back to FCC

    Feature
    Page Number: 
    24

    From the Fall 1999 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 24.


    In early August, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. (D.C. Cir.) reviewed a challenge to the FCC’s personal attack and political editorial rules, which afford political candidates a limited right to respond to personal character attacks. The court ordered the FCC to provide a more detailed defense of the rules but left the rules in effect.

    The News Media and The Law, Fall 1999

    Autopsy photos of Vince Foster will not be released

    Freedom of Information | Feature | October 29, 1999
    Feature
    October 29, 1999

        NMU         D.C.

    Confidential recordings become public once played in open court

    Freedom of Information | Feature | October 28, 1999
    Feature
    October 28, 1999

        NMU         D.C.

    Court absolves Whitewater prosecutors of contempt charges

    Reporter's Privilege | Feature | October 4, 1999
    Feature
    October 4, 1999

        NMU         D.C.

    FDA can keep deadly drug test reports secret

    Freedom of Information | Feature | August 23, 1999
    Feature
    August 23, 1999

    D.C. CIRCUIT--The federal Food and Drug Administration does not have to release drug manufacturers' pre-clinical reports of tests of drugs that resulted in deaths or serious injuries and caused drug companies to abort plans to develop those drugs, the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Cir.) ruled in early August.

    The appeals panel, saying that release of the safety reports on the early tests could cause the drug manufacturers substantial competitive harm, allowed the government to exempt them from disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

    Agencies can delete electronic records if they keep paper copies

    Freedom of Information | Feature | August 23, 1999
    Feature
    August 23, 1999

    D.C. CIRCUIT--Federal agencies do not have to keep electronic records if they maintain paper copies of the same information, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled in mid-August, reversing a two-year-old federal District Court decision.

    The Records Disposal Act allows the Archivist to make decisions on the form in which records are maintained, the appeals panel said, and he can allow agencies to choose, based upon their own needs, whether to keep records electronically or on paper.

    FCC ordered to justify 'personal attack,' 'political editorial' rules

    Content Regulation | Feature | August 9, 1999
    Feature
    August 9, 1999

    WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Federal Communications Commission must provide justification for its longstanding "personal attack" and "political editorial" rules in order to keep them from being struck down, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., (D.C. Cir.) held in early August.

    The federal appeals court remanded a case challenging the continued existence of the rules back to the FCC. It told the agency that the justification for the personal attack and political editorial rules could not be the same broad justification that supported the now-dead "fairness doctrine."