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QUICKLINK Pennsylvania · November 5, 2009 · Libel
Pennsylvania high court overturns $3.5m defamation verdict
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a $3.5 million defamation verdict against Wilkes-Barre's The Citizens' Voice and ordered a new trial after finding the original trial may have been fixed by two former judges and a reputed crime boss, the Times Leader reported.
The case began when Thomas Joseph sued the Voice after it reported on an investigation into his connection with alleged mobster William D’Elia. Joseph was . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 2:14 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Jersey · November 4, 2009 · Newsgathering
Cameraman files suit against Newark officer for assault
A television news cameraman in New Jersey has filed a 17-count lawsuit against a police officer and the city of Newark, alleging that he was assaulted while covering demonstration against street violence, The Star-Ledger reported.
Longtime cameraman James Quodomine was on assignment for Newark's WCBS-TV when he was sent to cover a gathering of city residents who had lost family members to violence. His lawsuit alleges that Officer Brian Sharif confiscated his camera, put him in a . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:30 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · November 3, 2009 · Freedom of information
White House releases first batch of visitor logs
The White House on Friday published nearly 500 visitor records online that detail visits made in the months from Obama's inauguration until the end of July, The Washington Post reported.
The records were in response to 110 specific records requests made in September and were released nearly two months before the White House is set to begin publishing visitor logs online each month.
In September, the Obama administration . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:13 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. Supreme Court · November 3, 2009 · Secret courts
High court refuses to stop release of clergy abuse suit records
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by a Connecticut Roman Catholic diocese to stop the release of records related to sexual-abuse lawsuits against its priests.
The Associated Press reported that the Court denied the Diocese of Bridgeport's appeal to overturn the Connecticut high court's order to unseal more than 12,000 pages of documents from 23 lawsuits.
Publications including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 5:02 pm · View reader comments (8)
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · November 2, 2009 · Freedom of information
FBI hands over transcript of Cheney on Plame leak
The FBI released documents under court order Friday that show former vice president Dick Cheney's recollection is fuzzy on his involvement in the exposure of an undercover CIA operative in the months leading up to the beginning of the Iraq war, the Washington Post reported.
The transcript of Cheney's 2004 interview, which was released after a long-fought legal battle waged by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, shows that he did not recall . . . [more]
— Amanda Becker, 5:15 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · October 30, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Senators announce compromise on federal shield bill
Two senators announced Friday that the Obama Administration has agreed to a deal that could allow plans for a federal journalist shield law to move forward next week.
Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that the new version of the Free Flow of Information Act will no longer only apply to "salaried employees" and independent contractors for established news organizations, but will cover freelancers and online journalists. The bill will also preserve a public-interest balancing test for criminal, civil and leak cases, meaning that a judge will be able to weight the public interest in confidentiality against the public interest served by compelled disclosure. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up the revised bill on Thursday.
“The negotiated compromise creates a fair standard to protect the public interest, journalists, the news media, bloggers, prosecutors and litigants,” said Specter. “The news media kept up the pressure for years to produce . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 6:10 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE 9th Cir. · October 30, 2009 · Freedom of information
Small Business Agency will pay attorney fees in FOIA case
The American Small Business League will finally get to collect legal fees from the Department of Justice now that the agency has dropped its appeal of a California federal court's award.
The Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) was set to hear the department’s appeal early next year, the league reported in a release.
The suit stemmed from when the Small Business Administration denied the league's request for the names of firms that received small business contracts and the amounts awarded in 2005 and 2006. The SBA claimed it kept no record of the names and that the information was stored at the General Services Administration.
In her ruling in favor of the league, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn H. Patel found "curious" the SBA’s argument that it did not possess its own funding allocation information. Patel ordered the SBA to hand over the records and pay the league's attorney fees . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 5:55 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 29, 2009 · Freedom of information
Obama signs law blocking release of detainee torture photos
President Obama signed legislation Thursday that blocks the release of photos that depict the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody. The new law is expected to thwart any chance the Supreme Court will hear the case over whether the photos should be disclosed to the public.
The Homeland Security Appropriations bill Obama signed grants the Department of Defense authority to withhold the photos.
Now that the bill is signed into law, it likely makes the long-fought battle over the torture photos moot. The Supreme Court twice this month . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 6:35 pm · View reader comments (2)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Arizona · October 29, 2009 · Freedom of information
Arizona Supreme Court rules electronic data is public
The Arizona Supreme Court today ruled that metadata – information about the history, tracking and management of an electronic document – is subject to the state’s public records law.
Several national media organizations supported Phoenix police officer David Lake’s challenge that the city improperly denied his 2006 public records request for the metadata about documents he had previously requested and received. The city refused Lake’s request, arguing the metadata did not fall within the state’s definition of public records, which a court established in 1952, long before the advent of electronic documents.
In a unanimous opinion released today, the state’s high court held, “If a public entity maintains a public record in an electronic format, then the electronic version, including any embedded metadata, is subject to disclosure.”
David J. Bodney, a lawyer who helped write a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of The Associated Press, Gannett Co., The E.W. Scripps Company, and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 5:50 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Florida · October 28, 2009 · State open government
NCAA releases documents in Florida State case
The NCAA today released Florida State University disciplinary records to comply with a court order after the Florida Supreme Court rejected its last-ditch effort to block their release.
The lower court's order required the NCAA to release the documents by 2 p.m. today. The organization had asked the state's high court for an emergency stay but was denied, the Associated Press reported. Florida State University . . . [more]
— Brooke Ericson, 6:40 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Tennessee · October 27, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Death threats spur release of web commenter's identity
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported today that it complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for information about a single user comment on its Web site.
The FBI requested the information as part of an investigation into reported death threats made against defense attorneys for the alleged ringleader of a January 2007 carjacking and double murder of a young local couple. Though the U.S. Attorney’s office asked the newspaper to keep the information secret, editors posted a story on the Web detailing the expanded death-threat investigation and explaining to readers its decision to comply with the subpoena.
Jack Lail, director of news innovation for the paper’s Web site, knoxnews.com, said editors consulted with corporate counsel and determined the narrow nature of the request made it doubtful the paper would successfully defend the confidentiality in court.
“This was a narrowly defined request for information about a single comment, and we felt that they were not on a fishing . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 6:30 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK New Jersey · October 26, 2009 · Newsgathering
Judge blocks New Jersey ban on exit polling
A federal judge in New Jersey issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking that state’s attempt to ban exit polling within 100 feet of polling places, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Court Judge Peter G. Sheridan issued the injunction in response to a request from the National Election Pool, a coalition of media groups that includes AP, CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS. Sheridan said he found “simply no evidence that exit polling has ever led to disorderly . . . [more]
— Rory Eastburg, 5:46 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Florida · October 26, 2009 · Freedom of information
Requests for Florida school records expensive, time consuming
The open-government site Sunshine Review found that despite Florida's strong open records law, obtaining information on public schools is still a daunting process for private citizens, the group's editor wrote in the Orlando Sentinel.
As part of the nonprofit transparency group's Back to School project, it filed public records requests with Florida schools seeking information on school lobbyists. Though the schools largely answered the requests, it was . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:14 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK 9th Cir. · October 26, 2009 · Freedom of information
Appeals court releases its opinion on release of petition signers
On the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that temporarily blocked the release of the names of people who petitioned to repeal a same-sex marriage law in Washington state, the appeals court has released its rationale for its earlier order to disclose the names.
The Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) ruled on October 15 that petition signing cannot be protected as a form of anonymous speech since there is no promise of confidentiality and Washington law specifically provides that both . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 4:58 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Utah · October 23, 2009 · Secret courts
Press asks court to unseal Smart kidnap files
Five Utah news organizations asked a federal judge to unseal records Monday that relate to the highly publicized kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the Associated Press reported.
The Deseret News, The Salt Lake Tribune, the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Press Association and the AP cited a compelling public interest in the documents, including a report about defendant Brian David Mitchell’s mental competency. They argued . . . [more]
— Rory Eastburg, 3:01 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 23, 2009 · Newsgathering
White House attempted to shut out Fox News reporter
Tension between the White House and Fox News continued to mount this week after broadcast bureau chiefs in Washington refused to go along with the Obama’s administration’s attempt to squeeze Fox News out of an interview.
Despite the administration’s pledge to play nice earlier this week, the White House tried to exclude Fox News – alone among the five White House "pool" networks – from interviewing executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 2:54 pm · View reader comments (52)
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 22, 2009 · Freedom of information
Musicians file FOIA request seeking music used in torture
Dozens of high-profile musicians on Thursday demanded the release of song titles that were played repetitively as a coercive interrogation technique at Guantanamo Bay and signed onto a public records request filed by the National Security Archive, the Washington Post reported.
Current and former band members of Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails and the Roots signed the NSA's request, which was sent to numerous government agencies, . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:27 pm · View reader comments (3)
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 21, 2009 · Freedom of information
ACLU asks Gates to not block release of detainee abuse photos
The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the secretary of defense not to exercise his authority to withhold photos of detainee abuse that was granted to him by Congress -- pending an expected signing by the president -- earlier this week.
In a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the ACLU urged him to "not invoke your new and discretionary authority to suppress images of abuse."
Congress passed . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 6:05 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK U.S. Supreme Court · October 21, 2009 · Privacy
Supreme Court halts release of petition signers in Washington state
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the release of the names of people who petitioned to overturn a Washington state law that gives benefits to same-sex couples, Scotusblog reported.
In a 8-1 vote, the court decided Washington's secretary of state could not release the names of about 138,000 petition signatories until Protect Marriage Now, an organization opposing release, has an opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court, which will not occur before Election Day Nov. . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:06 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK California · October 21, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
TMZ founder disgusted by sheriff's search of his phone records
The founder of the gossip network TMZ said this week he is outraged that Los Angeles authorities obtained his telephone records during an investigation into who leaked news of Mel Gibson's 2006 arrest for drunken driving, LA Observed reported.
Harvey Levin told an audience at a Southern California Radio & Television News Association meeting that "it breaks federal law, it breaks state law. . . . I have reason now to believe they have done it again. . . . This is like 'Chinatown.' It is . . . [more]
— Amanda Becker, 4:09 pm · Comments: 0
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