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NEWS RELEASE: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Reporters Committee expresses disappointment in decision overturning broadcast access to Nichols' proceedings

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June 2, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lucy Dalglish, (703) 807-2100

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reply with "remove" in the subject line.)

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press today expressed

disappointment in the decision of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

to reverse a lower court judge and ban all television coverage of the

court proceedings of accused Oklahoma bombing suspect Terry Nichols.

The appellate court dismissed the findings that Associate District Judge

Robert Murphy Jr. had issued in his 25-page May 8 opinion. The court

concluded, without discussing any factual background, that banning

broadcast of "any and all court proceedings" was mandated "[i]n order to

ensure the solemnity of the judicial proceedings, to minimize the

potential tainting of a possible future jury pool, to curtail outside

interference with these criminal proceedings, and to ensure the

reliability of the result ultimately determined in this case."

"Judge Murphy had taken considerable time to consider testimony about

cameras in courtrooms and to write a thoughtful opinion on their use in

criminal trials. The appeals court appears to have ignored his findings,"

said Lucy A. Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee. "It

is particularly distressing that the appeals court overturned the

decision based merely on a petition from the state and the defendant.

Counsel for the media companies who had sought permission to broadcast

the trial were not even allowed the opportunity to respond to the

petitioners at the appeals stage."

The appellate court cited three U.S. Supreme Court cases in its opinion,

two of which precede the Court's later determination that the public

enjoys a presumptive First Amendment right to attend criminal proceedings

and one of which concerned access to pieces of evidence used in a trial

and not the right of the media to broadcast a court proceeding.

Murphy's detailed opinion had discussed both the First Amendment

jurisprudence and the factual findings underpinning his conclusion that a

canon in the Oklahoma Code of Judicial Conduct that allowed a criminal

defendant to refuse to have any portion of his or her trial broadcast

violated the state and federal constitutions. He had meticulously

described the underpinnings for his conclusion that trial participants

act more professionally when a camera is present in the courtroom and

that the camera neither detracts from the dignity of the proceedings nor

distracts parties and witnesses.

"The issue raised . . . is not whether this proceeding will generate

publicity," Murphy wrote in the overturned opinion. "It already has. The

issue . . . is whether the public should be limited to second hand

summaries of the news, prejudicial inflammatory characterizations by

interested third parties; or whether they will be able to see for

themselves what actually transpires in court under the control of the

presiding judge."

The Reporters Committee 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,

including in cases concerning cameras in the courtroom.