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.
The Utah Judicial Council unanimously approved measures on Monday that moves video coverage of civil and criminal trial proceedings one step closer to reality. If the changes to state court procedures are adopted, Utah would be propelled from one of the most restrictive states to one of the most open and accessible, in terms of electronic coverage of state courts.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has put together a guide on some of the legal issues that journalists covering the Ohio school shooting may encounter. The guide is available on the Reporters Committee web site, and covers primarily freedom-of-information and court-access issues.
A court proceeding to determine whether an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy killed his father’s pregnant fiancée and her unborn son will remain closed to the public, a state appellate court ruled last week.
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania affirmed a juvenile court order that the delinquency proceeding of Jordan Brown, now 13, should remain closed because the government's interest in protecting the privacy of juveniles outweighs the public's right of access to the proceeding.
Los Angeles County Juvenile Court proceedings will be open to regular media coverage, but not to the public, unless a compelling case is made to close it, the court’s presiding judge ruled this week.
Prior to the ruling by Judge Michael Nash, the dependency side of the court, which focuses on cases of child abuse, foster care and adoption proceedings, had been largely closed to news organizations.
In a landmark ruling that grants the media and public a qualified First Amendment right of access to civil trials in South Dakota, the state's highest court held that a trial judge erred in barring access to a trial that settled a familial dispute over a popular area tourist attraction.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in its June 24 decision in U.S. v. Brice that the public has a presumptive right of access to material witness proceedings. However, it also ruled that records should not be disclosed if they contain significant private information relating to a victim’s well-being.
Banning the media and public from a juror contempt hearing violates the First Amendment-based right of public access to criminal court proceedings,the Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled last month in the case of Riley v. Gibson.
The Kansas judge who will preside over the murder trial of the man charged with killing a prominent abortion doctor agreed today to open jury selection to the media after the Kansas Supreme Court urged him to reconsider his decision to ban reporters, according to reports by The Associated Press and The Wichita Eagle.
The Roanoke Timesreports that the newspaper received special permission to use a netbook and cell phone to blog during the trial of a white supremacist accused of harrassing a newspaper reporter.
