Search results: World Is Open (sorted by relevance)
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE NEW YORK · April 30, 2002 · Secret courts
Online access to state court records comes under scrutiny
The New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, announced on April 24 the creation of a commission that will weigh the costs and benefits of having court records posted on the Internet.
Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye said First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, whose past clients include The New York Times, CNN and other major news organizations, will chair the 22-member Commission on Public Access to Court Records.
The panel was appointed in response to the posting of court dates and selected orders and decisions on the state's Office of Court Administration Web site. This has caused some to question the dangers such access poses to people's privacy as more and more court documents become accessible to a worldwide audience via the Internet.
"We see the whole world changing over the next decade," the New York Law Journal quoted Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman as saying. "There will be a totally new level of openness, but we don't want to do that willy nilly."
Abrams told the Journal that the commission will take into account a wide array of opinions after questioning judges, members of the media and . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. SUPREME COURT · May 14, 2002 · Prior restraints
Supreme Court declines to strike down Internet porn law
The U.S. Supreme Court kept alive the latest congressional effort to shield children from what it considers harmful Internet content, determining that it could not strike the law down simply because it relies on "community standards."
In a mixed decision released May 13, the Court suggested that the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, might fail under other free-speech concerns not addressed at the district or appellate court levels. The Justices remanded the case, Ashcroft v. ACLU, back to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia (3rd Cir.) for further review.
"The scope of our decision today is quite limited," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the leading opinion of the fractured decision. "We hold only that COPA's reliance on community standards to identify 'material that is harmful to minors' does not by itself render the statute substantially overbroad."
Congress passed the law in 1998. The law allows prison sentences and fines up to $100,000 as punishment for placing material "harmful to minors" on a Web site available to Internet users under the age of 17. The law replaced portions of the Communications Decency Act, which the . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · May 17, 2002 · Prior restraints
State, Justice ask CBS News not to air Pearl video segments
The departments of State and Justice contacted CBS News to ask the network not to air segments of a videotape of conversations between slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and his captors shortly before Pearl's murder in February in Pakistan. The agencies told the network it should not broadcast the segments out of consideration for Pearl's family.
The tape, dubbed in Arabic, was brought to CBS attention by dissident Saudi Arabian journalist Ali al-Ahmed who discovered it on a Web site he said was intended to inflame hatred for America among young Saudis. The videotape includes the execution of Pearl but CBS never entertained the idea of broadcasting that portion of the tape.
According to a network spokesperson, CBS contacted The Wall Street Journal before the broadcast as a courtesy so that Pearl's fellow workers and family would not be surprised by it.
Shortly after contacting the newspaper CBS received calls from the two government agencies asking that it not air the segments out of respect for the wishes of Pearl's family.
Beginning the broadcast of short segments of the tape on May 14, CBS News anchor Dan Rather told . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE SWITZERLAND · June 11, 2002 · Intellectual property
Web site retains rights to parody Falwell
A mediation panel denied Reverend Dr. Jerry Falwell's bid to gain control of Internet domains bearing his name and posting criticism about him.
A panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization, a Switzerland-based arbiter of Internet disputes, ruled 2-to-1 in favor of defendant Gary Cohn in Falwell's suit of "reverse domain name hijacking," a claim blending cybersquatting and copyright infringement elements. Falwell tried to strip the Internet domains jerryfalwell.com and jerryfallwell.com from Cohn.
Cohn, an Illinois resident, used the domains to post criticisms and parodies of Falwell's ministry and messages, especially Falwell's claim that feminists, the ACLU, gays and lesbians helped bring about the events of September 11. Falwell.com includes an animated photo of Falwell inserting a foot in his mouth repeatedly. Falwell later apologized for his comments.
The key issue turned on whether the panel determined that Falwell's name was a common law trademark, since Falwell had not registered his name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. If it had been registered, Cohn could have been liable for copyright infringement. If not, the use of . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE KENTUCKY · June 20, 2002 · Prior restraints
Judge reverses restraint over name, permits newspaper to publish
In what was scheduled to be a contempt hearing June 19, an eastern Kentucky judge gave a newspaper the right to publish under the name it has used for years.
"I didn't know what to expect when going to court, but I'm just glad we're not in jail," said Gary Ball, editor of the Inez, Ky., Mountain Citizen, which has published five weekly editions since issued a restraining order against using the name.
The name "Mountain Citizen, Inc." was acquired by a local water official, who had been the subject of critical news stories, after he discovered that the incorporation papers lapsed. The paper refused to stop publishing when Marin County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Sparks forbade it to use the name May 21. Expected to file an extended request for restraint Wednesday, counsel for former Water Board Chairman and local Republican Party President John Triplett instead withdrew the motion for an order permanently barring the paper from using the name, and Sparks gave the paper permission to publish.
Ball, along with Owner Lisa Stayton and Publisher Roger Smith, could still face a fine or jail time for contempt of court. Sparks could reach a decision as soon . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · September 27, 2002 · Newsgathering
Journalists swept up in mass arrests during World Bank-IMF protests
Journalists covering protests in the nation's Capital Sept. 27 were swept up in the mass arrests of 649 individuals, handcuffed and detained for several hours.
Several credentialed journalists in the Freedom Plaza and Pershing Square area in downtown Washington reported that around 400 people were corralled by police into the southwest corner of the square mid-morning. The demonstrators were protesting during meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. They were handcuffed, placed on waiting metro buses and taken to a police holding facility in southwest Washington to be processed.
"I'm press!, I'm press!," Stefany Moore, a United Press International intern said she told police officers. "One of them said: 'You had your chance [to leave]'; one of them said: 'I don't care.'"
Moore, along with washingtonpost.com reporters Christina Pino-Marina and Michael Bruno, sat among approximately 35 protesters on a bus along with several others claiming to be from independent media organizations.
Bruno said a colleague informed him that Pino-Marina was being arrested. Bruno said he saw his colleague bent over at the waist being handcuffed by . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE VIRGINIA · September 27, 2002 · Secret courts
Judge removes sealing order on all Moussaoui pleadings
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted a motion Sept. 27 filed by eight media organizations requesting access to accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui's pleadings.
The media groups had challenged Brinkema's Aug. 29 blanket order placing "any future pleadings filed by the defendant, pro se, containing threats, racial slurs, calls to action, or other irrelevant and inappropriate language" under seal.
"Sealing of records or portions thereof in criminal cases is justified only if such an accommodation is narrowly tailored to serve compelling interests," Brinkema's new order stated. Responding to prosecutors' request to have the court clerk reject all inappropriate filings by Moussaoui, Brinkema said, "In our view, the United States' proposal does not properly balance the defendant's right to seek appropriate judicial relief against the public's right to access records in criminal cases and the United States' legitimate concerns about the defendant's efforts to communicate with the outside world."
While recognizing that the government had "legitimate" concerns regarding Moussaoui's attempt to communicate with his "people" through court filings, . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · September 30, 2002 · Newsgathering
Journalists report numerous media arrests during protests
The count of journalists arrested late last week during the IMF-World Bank protests in downtown Washington, D.C., climbed to at least 17 as more reports came to light. Among those arrested were reporters and photographers from major media outlets, independent media and local student journalists.
Two washingtonpost.com reporters and a United Press International intern were arrested, detained and released without charges in a matter of hours. Student journalists and independent media were detained anywhere from 10 to 27 hours, slapped with a $50 "post and forfeit" fee for early release and returned to their respective newsrooms with a criminal charge of failing to obey the police.
"It's very disappointing the way the police just go in and whether they are reporters or not, everyone gets arrested," said Bruce Casino, a media lawyer with Baker and Hostetler who was called in to assist the UPI employee. "[It] doesn't seem to concur with freedom of the press."
Many journalists reported similar scenarios. While patrolling protest events in downtown Washington the morning of Sept. 27, police corralled a large group of people -- including protestors, journalists . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · October 22, 2002 · Newsgathering
Student journalists file suit over protest arrests
Four student journalists and three law students sued the federal and local governments Oct. 15 over their arrests Sept. 27 at the World Bank/IMF protests in downtown Washington, D.C., and more lawsuits are planned.
The student journalists are photographers for George Washington University's student newspaper The Hatchet. The GWU law students were attending the protest as legal observers for the National Lawyers Guild.
Among those named in the suit are the U.S. Attorney General, attorney for the District of Columbia, the National Park Service and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. The departments are accused of infringing on the seven students' First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Police used a "trap-and-arrest" method to corral, arrest and detain more than 650 individuals Sept. 27. Although many of those arrested were protesters, several dozen journalists, passers-by and observers were swept up in the arrests, according to media reports.
Many of the individuals arrested were kept on buses for hours, then transferred to a police academy gymnasium where they were shackled wrist-to-ankle for as long as 27 hours, . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE CANADA · November 12, 2002 · Reporter's privilege
Journalist's phone records reported stolen in midst of libel suit
Connecticut-based newspaper and magazine columnist Chris Byron says he is experiencing a "reckless attack" on his credibility and viability as a journalist.
Not only is he being sued for libel in a country that doesn't recognize the same press freedoms as the United States, but just last week, his phone records -- containing confidential sources -- were stolen.
Byron claims his records were fraudulently obtained from his service provider, AT&T, by the plaintiffs in the defamation suit pending against him. But because the suit is in Canada and involves a former top U.S. official, he said he feels powerless to do anything about it.
Byron's troubles began with a column he wrote for the September 2002 issue of the business magazine Red Herring, alleging that a buyout bid for Imagis Technologies, a Vancouver-based facial-recognition software company run by former FBI chief of counterterrorism Oliver "Buck" Revell, was probably a hoax to drive up the company's stock price on the Vancouver penny stock market.
"This isn't a market in which value, like cream, rises to the top," Byron wrote. "It's a world where prices tend to go up because someone is . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · November 12, 2002 · Newsgathering
Free press and economic strength linked, World Bank says
An independent media industry with broad reach that provides quality information is not only empowering to society, but can lead to reduced poverty and a stimulated economy, according to a Nov. 7 World Bank report.
"The Right to Tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development," released by the World Bank along with the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, is a 332-page book of works by 19 authors from around the world, all analyzing the media and its effect on the economy.
The report, which targets policymakers, non-governmental organizations, journalists, researchers and students, was borne out of the World Bank's 2002 report "Building Institutions for Markets," which devoted a chapter to the media's role in development.
The report's contributors include Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, and writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature. Other authors include professors, economists and editors from places such as Bangladesh, London and Zimbabwe.
The contributors examine media ownership, public policy and economic conditions.
. . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE D.C. CIRCUIT · December 3, 2002 · Newsgathering
Lawyers argue for more access to Guantanamo Bay detainees
In the latest attempt to access the U.S. government's largely incommunicado detainees captured in its war on terrorism, attorneys urged a federal appeals court Dec. 2 to apply some letter of law -- be it U.S. or international -- to the "enemy combatants" of Guantanamo Bay.
The case was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. (D.C. Cir.) after being dismissed because of lack of jurisdiction by a district court in July.
The 90-minute hearing came several weeks after the government argued before the same federal appeals court to withhold information on detainees held in the United States that the district court ruled is available under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Generally, access to detainees in the U.S. and at Guantanamo Bay, according to reporters, is practically non-existent.
Thomas B. Wilner and Joseph Margulies, the attorneys for the detainees, claim that their clients -- 12 Kuwaitis, two Britons and two Australians -- have been inaccessible to the outside world since December 2001 and that their detainment at the U.S. Naval Base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay is "utterly outside the law."
About 625 detainees . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE AUSTRALIA · December 10, 2002 · Libel
High Court makes landmark ruling on Internet jurisdiction in libel cases
The highest court in Australia decided Dec. 10 that Dow Jones, publisher of numerous periodicals including the Wall Street Journal and Barron's, can be sued in Australia over an article that was written in the United States and distributed over the Internet.
The case has serious implications for publishers who post news and other articles on the Internet, where they can be accessed all over the world.
The High Court of Australia rejected Dow Jones's appeal that a defamation suit brought by Australian businessman Joseph Gutnick should be brought in New Jersey, where the article was placed on the Internet, rather than in Australia.
Gutnick alleges he was defamed in an October 2000 article that appeared in Barron's magazine, both in print and online. The article connected Gutnick, a wealthy Melbourne resident, with money laundering operations in the United States and Australia.
The decision centered on the legal definition of where a story is "published," for purposes of a libel suit. Dow Jones argued that "publication" occurs in the place where the publisher places the article on the Internet, in this case New Jersey.
The . . . [more]
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE THE HAGUE · December 11, 2002 · Libel
UN tribunal adopts reporter's privilege in win for world media
In a case that has been watched closely by media groups around the globe, the appeals court of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal decided Dec.11 that a qualified reporter's privilege will be applied to protect war correspondents from being forced to provide evidence in prosecutions before the tribunal.
The court decided that a subpoena may be issued to a war correspondent only if the evidence sought is of direct and important value in determining a core issue in the case, and the evidence cannot reasonably be obtained elsewhere.
The ruling is a win for former Washington Post reporter Jonathan Randal, who brought the appeal after a trial court ordered him to comply with a subpoena to appear as a witness before the court.
The subpoena sought Randal's testimony in the prosecution of former Bosnian Serb Deputy Prime Minister Radoslav Brdjanin, who is on trial for genocide and deportation of non-Serbs during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Randal was subpoenaed because he interviewed Brdjanin for a story published in 1993.
The decision by the appeals court recognized that subpoenas to war correspondents can jeopardize the independence . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE CALIFORNIA · January 14, 2003 · Freedom of information
Appeals court rules expulsion records protected under FERPA
Jan. 14, 2003 -- A California Court of Appeals in Riverside ruled Dec. 31 that student expulsion records are considered educational records and as such can be withheld by schools under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
The court ruled that a state law requiring school boards to maintain public records of all expulsions violated FERPA regulations.
FERPA provides for privacy concerning student educational records maintained by an educational agency or institution.
Violating this act, also known as the Buckley Amendment, by releasing a student's educational records without consent from the student or student's parents can lead to a loss of federal funding.
The case stemmed from a request by Larry Komar of Lake Arrowhead, Calif. for suspension and expulsion records from the Rim of the World Unified School District. The district declined, citing the Buckley Amendment. Komar narrowed his request to just expulsions. After that request also was denied he took his claim to a California superior court, which granted his request.
The appeals court reversed the lower court's decision.
According to Komar, a child advocate, 73 percent . . . [more]
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE CONNECTICUT · January 23, 2003 · Newsgathering
Charges dismissed against newspaper photographer
Jan. 23, 2003 -- A Durby superior court Wednesday dismissed charges filed against a Connecticut Post photographer apprehended by police in late December.
Christian Abraham was charged with interfering with police, escape from custody and simple trespass after taking pictures during the arrest of a man who led police on a car chase.
Abraham said he was initially about 15 feet from the arrest. He said he was ordered by police to back up and complied, then took a single flash picture when he was 20 or 30 feet away.
That's when police handcuffed him and took him to a police stations where he was processed and released on his own recognizance.
"It was a mistake on their part," Abraham said. "I'm just glad it's over with so I can get on with my life as far as my job goes."
Post Editor Frank Keegan said that he was relieved, but that it was important to keep the incident in perspective.
"We've got journalists around the world being murdered for doing their job," Keegan said. "It was a good outcome. I don't think it's going to happen again around here."
-- . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE OKLAHOMA · February 7, 2003 · Freedom of information
Newspaper pushing for access to police database
Feb. 7, 2003 -- The Tulsa World intervened in a discrimination lawsuit against the City of Tulsa, Okla. to request access to a database that is to be compiled as part of the settlement.
According to the settlement agreement in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in 1994 by a group of black police officers against the city of Tulsa alleging employment discrimination, the city must compile a database tracking officers names, training received, complaints against police officers, pedestrian stops, traffic citations, arrests and other information. But as it stands now, the database will be closed to public inspection.
The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents police officers, has criticized the settlement and the creation of the database claiming that such information should not be compiled because of a discrimination case.
The city pointed out that much of the information already exists and that creating the database simply centralizes the records.
The newspaper thinks it and the public should have access to that data.
The World proposed to the court this week that most of the database be open to public inspection. The . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE NEW YORK · February 7, 2003 · Freedom of information
Judge rules that firefighter tapes from September 11 are public
Feb. 7, 2003 -- A New York City judge Feb. 5 granted New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer access to substantial portions of the tapes and transcripts of conversations with firefighters during the events of September 11 and oral histories of the city's firefighters created after September 11.
Dwyer, who has written extensively about the tragedy, filed a Freedom of Information Law request in June 2002 for the records but the city invoked exemptions to the law to protect privacy, to protect law enforcement investigations, and to avoid interference with confidential internal policy making.
Although Justice Richard Braun approved privacy exemptions to protect the emergency (911) calls of private citizens, he ruled that the reporter can inspect and obtain copies of tapes between city firefighters, dispatchers and other emergency personnel. Calling the situation extraordinarily difficult, Braun said that that they were "public employees" and as such are "not entitled to a privacy exemption."
Braun ruled that Dwyer may have the factual portions of tapes and transcripts of the more than 500 oral histories created as the fire department interviewed its own . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE FLORIDA · February 19, 2003 · Broadcasting
FCC 'no distortion' policy cannot be basis for 'whistleblower' verdict
Feb. 19, 2003 -- The Federal Communications Commission's policy against news distortion is not a "law, rule or regulation," a Florida court of appeals in Lakeland ruled Feb. 14 in throwing out a Tampa television reporter's $425,000 jury award under the state's whistleblower law.
Jane Akre won the hefty award in August 2000 by claiming that her employer WTVT-TV fired her after she threatened to tell the FCC that it had tried to distort the news. The Florida whistleblower law allows an employee to recover damages when an employer retaliates against efforts to report unlawful behavior.
But the appeals court ruled unanimously that Akre had not described any behavior by her former employer that was unlawful under the state's whistleblower statute. The FCC, in a series of opinions on licensing broadcasters, had found proven instances of slanting or distorting the news, but that was not a rule or law. Federal agencies can make policy through adjudications but policies are not rules or laws, the court said.
Akre and her husband Steve Wilson, hired as an investigative team by the Fox affiliated television station, began working on a story in 1996 about the use . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE KANSAS · February 19, 2003 · Libel
Legislature will not repeal criminal defamation law
Feb. 19, 2003 -- The Kansas Senate failed yesterday to adopt proposals that would have eliminated or significantly altered the state's criminal defamation law, under which the editor and publisher of a local newspaper were convicted last year.
State Sen. Derek Schmidt (R-Independence) sponsored a bill that would have repealed the law, but after a debate by legislators yesterday, that measure was rejected.
Last year, David W. Carson and Edward H. Powers Jr., who publish the Kansas City-based newspaper The New Observer, were prosecuted for falsely reporting that a Wyandotte County mayor and a judge resided in another county in violation of law. Carson and Powers are appealing their conviction.
The case spurred debate over whether Kansas's criminal defamation law should remain on the books.
Kansas is one of few states that has a criminal defamation statute. The law makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly spread false information about a person. The crime is punishable by up to a year in jail or a $2,500 fine.
Critics of the law say it is outdated and chills speech.
Edward Seaton, editor-in-chief of The Manhattan Mercury and . . . [more]
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