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NEWS RELEASE: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Reporters Committee objects to strict gag in Ramsey case

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Oct. 14, 1999

For immediate release

Contact: Gregg P. Leslie, (703) 807-2100

(To remove your address from this list, reply with "remove" in the subject line.)

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced today that

it protests the expansive gag order signed by the Chief Judge of the

Boulder District Court on October 13, 1999, which threatens any member

of the public with prosecution for contempt of court if he or she

contacts a member of the discharged Boulder County Grand Jury that

investigated the JonBenet Ramsey murder.

Government-imposed secrecy denies the free flow of information

and ideas to the public and any order restricting the journalistic

right to gather news must be narrowly tailored to prevent a

substantial threat to the administration of justice, according to

the Reporters Committee.

"Courts will always make grand jurors swear oaths of secrecy

forbidding them to talk to anyone about their investigations,

but an order criminalizing the simplest steps in the

newsgathering process in such a high-profile case is fundamentally

offensive to the First Amendment," according to Gregg P. Leslie,

the Acting Executive Director of the Reporters Committee. "A

sweeping prohibition of indefinite duration, without any attempt

by the court to demonstrate a need or any indication of improper

behavior, should not stand."

The Boulder court has attempted to indefinitely restrict the

media's ability to contact former grand jurors who had been

dismissed by the Boulder County District Attorney.

The United States Supreme Court has noted that "the invocation

of grand jury interests is not ‘some talisman that dissolves

all constitutional protections.' . . . Indeed, we have noted

that grand juries are expected to ‘operate within the limits

of the First Amendment,' as well as the other provisions of

the Constitution."

"The media serves the public and the judiciary by revealing

aspects of the judicial process through the dissemination of

information about litigation," Leslie said. "Courts have

interpreted the First Amendment to protect not only publication

of news but also the media's news gathering practices. The

court does not have the power to restrict the media's right

to investigate and publish information that it lawfully obtains."

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is a voluntary,

unincorporated association of reporters and news editors

dedicated to protecting the First Amendment interests of the news

media. It has provided research, guidance and representation in

major press cases in state and federal courts for 30 years.