Access to places

Journalists covering an Arkansas oil spill in a suburban neighborhood said they were threatened with arrests, kicked out of the disaster site and had to seek permission from ExxonMobil to fly over the evacuated area.

An ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Ark., on March 29, causing 22 homes to be evacuated in the small town located north of Little Rock. So far, more than 19,000 barrels of oil have been collected.

A federal judge in Harrisburg, Pa., ruled Tuesday that a protocol limiting the ability of witnesses to see and hear all phases of an execution violates the First Amendment-based right of public access to judicial proceedings.

The court in Philadelphia Inquirer v. Wetzel ruled that because historically witnesses have been permitted full access to executions and such access would not jeopardize the safety of lethal injection administrators, all phases of execution procedures must be accessible to the public.

Campaign staffers for presidential candidate Mitt Romney barred a local radio reporter from covering a Republican Wisconsin senator’s stump speech Wednesday on behalf of Romney because of the actions of one of the station’s on-air personalities.

Dylan Brogan, a reporter for WTDY Radio in Madison, was assigned to cover the appearance of U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. Johnson’s appearance was billed in a press release as a talk about Romney’s plan to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class.

The media will be able to view the full execution of an Idaho death row inmate scheduled to be put to death tomorrow after a federal appeals court granted the journalists' request late Friday.

The decision grants The Associated Press and 16 other media organizations’ request for complete access to the execution of convicted murderer Richard A. Leavitt, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday.

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Thursday in The Associated Press and 16 other media organizations’ request for full viewing access to an Idaho execution.

AP Photo

The Idaho execution chamber

The athletic association that oversees public high school sports in Wisconsin is constitutionally entitled to sign exclusive contracts for online streaming of post-season tournaments, a federal appellate court ruled yesterday.

A Nevada photojournalist petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) Feb. 14 to immediately appeal a Nevada district court's inaction on her attempt to remove restrictions on access to wild horse roundups and warehouse facilities, which, she claimed, functions as a prior restraint.

An Illinois appellate court held on Dec. 8 that there is no right of access for the public to obtain search warrants that have been filed with the courts, even after the warrants have been executed. The decision came down Dec. 8 and seemingly contradicts what is commonly practiced in the state.