Search results: World Is Open (sorted by relevance)
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE KANSAS · August 5, 2004 · Freedom of information
Judge upholds right to withhold police dispatch recordings
Aug. 5, 2004 -- A district court judge in Lawrence, Kan., ruled last week that police dispatch recordings can be withheld under an exemption to the state open records act, then declined to clarify when the public's interest in such records would justify disclosure.
Judges in Kansas have the authority to make exempted records open when public interest outweighs the need for government secrecy.
Judge Paula Martin ruled against the Lawrence-Journal World July 30, holding that police dispatch audiotapes, which are public records in Kansas, can be withheld under the "criminal investigation records" exemption to the state freedom of information law. She then refused to issue a declaratory judgment, at the request of the Journal World , that all police dispatch recordings, "now and in the future," be made public under any circumstance.
Because the Lawrence Police Department released the tapes to the newspaper after they were played during a preliminary hearing in open court, Martin said the point was "moot."
Attorney Mike Merriam, who represented the Journal World , said the "moot" ruling sets a worrisome precedent that will lead to . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE OKLAHOMA · August 6, 2004 · Newsgathering
Investigation of meeting violation by reporter halted
Aug. 6, 2004 -- County officials in Tulsa, Okla., rescinded their request to investigate a Tulsa World reporter who left a running tape recorder behind in a closed executive session last week.
At a Tulsa County Commission meeting July 25, reporter Susan Hylton left behind the tape recorder she had been using during the open portion of the meeting. When commissioners found the recorder still recording 15 to 20 minutes into the closed session, they sent it to the sheriff's office, said Joe Worley, executive editor of the World .
Commissioner Bob Dick and County Assessor Ken Yazel immediately asked for an investigation into a possible violation of Oklahoma's Open Meeting Act. Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz said the investigation was dropped July 29, at the request of Dick.
"I think enough people came forward and said they saw the reporter place the recorder there during the meeting and she must have just forgotten it," Glanz said.
Hylton, a staff reporter, has covered Tulsa County government for the World for several years, Worley said. He called her reporting style "pretty aggressive."
"They should have figured out . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · August 19, 2004 · Secret courts
Military commission media rules released
Aug. 19, 2004 -- The Department of Defense this week publicly released its ground rules for media coverage of the military commission proceedings scheduled to begin on Monday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among the regulations is a contract reporters and their bureau chiefs must sign that allows the U.S. government to embargo information and censor photographs.
The preliminary hearings of four men, captured during the war in Afghanistan, will run through next week. According to Maj. Michael Shavers, a public affairs officer at the DOD, approximately 70 journalists and support personnel have been credentialed to attend the preliminary hearings, where charges will be read and the military commission process will be explained. Retired Army Col. Peter E. Brownback III, the presiding officer of the commission proceedings, will then issue dates for motions to be filed and testimony to be given.
The commission hearings will be the first the U.S. military has held since World War II.
Among the ground rules for members of the media is a provision prohibiting all photography and audio and video recordings of the commission proceedings without prior approval by the DOD . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE NEW YORK · September 1, 2004 · Newsgathering
Journalists detained at Republican convention
Sep. 1, 2004 -- Since Sunday, at least five journalists covering the convention and protests have been detained by police in the first days of the Republican National Convention in New York City. A hotline established by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to assist journalists during the convention helped some of them to gain release within a few hours.
The law firm of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz volunteered to staff the 24-hour hotline, and is coordinating with a number of volunteer attorneys from other law firms to provide cost-free assistance to credentialed journalists at the convention.
Associated Press photo runner Jeannette Warner was detained Tuesday when police closed an entire block containing about 100 protesters marching to the convention from the site of the World Trade Center and arrested everyone in the block, whether protesting or not. The AP photographer with Warner was also detained but was promptly released upon displaying official NYPD credentials.
Because Warner did not have credentials she was taken to Pier 57, where police have established a temporary processing center. Hotline attorney Halimah DeLaine was able to . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · September 16, 2004 · Freedom of information
HHS Web site: health privacy rules do not cover police reports
Sep. 16, 2004 -- In a new Web site, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acknowledges for the first time that health privacy rules should not impede newsgathering by journalists from sources not covered by the rules or subjects not addressed by them. The site comes more than a year after news groups said that health privacy rules could not be interpreted to prevent police officers, firefighters and ambulance workers from giving information about victims in emergencies.
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act does not forbid police or other emergency personnel from revealing information about victims of gunshot wounds, fires and other incidents typically reported by police and emergency personnel, the Web site states.
HIPAA, as the law is commonly known, has been cited by police and other emergency officials in denying important information to journalists, according to the National Newspaper Association. For example, the Beaver County Times and Allegheny Times in Pennsylvania reported that a local hospital cited HIPAA in not reporting a hepatitis outbreak to the public. In Oklahoma, the law has been used to . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE KANSAS · September 27, 2004 · Freedom of information
University releases employment contracts in response to court order
Sep. 27, 2004 -- The University of Kansas released its athletic director Lew Perkins' employment contracts last week, revealing a retention clause that had not previously been disclosed. The retention clause will pay him a $1.3 million bonus if he remains with the publicly funded university through June 30, 2009.
Earlier in the week, a Kansas trial court had granted the news media access to the contracts pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act.
Since January, media plaintiffs World Company, The Associated Press, and the Kansas Press Association submitted a series of requests for employment agreements between the University of Kansas and Perkins.
The media outlets sued the university after it refused to disclose the documents. The university claimed that because the contracts bore Perkins' name, they were "individually identifiable documents" and exempt from the open records law. An exemption to the law says "a public agency shall not be required to disclose . . . individually identifiable records pertaining to employees."
Douglas County District Judge Jack Murphy ruled that the university's definition of an exempt "individually identifiable record" . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE FLORIDA · November 5, 2004 · Newsgathering
Several journalists faced restrictions during presidential election
Nov. 5, 2004 -- Journalists covering the presidential election were barred from polling places in several areas of the country and one was arrested for photographing voters outside a polling place in Florida. In Ohio, a federal appeals court overturned media restrictions while a Texas newspaper in President Bush's hometown reported harassment after endorsing Kerry.
A Florida sheriff's deputy chased, tackled, punched and arrested a freelance investigative journalist from Long Island who was photographing voters outside of Palm Beach County's main elections office Sunday afternoon, according a Palm Beach Post reporter who witnessed the event.
James S. Henry came to Palm Beach County to document election activities for his upcoming book, but instead became the first target of a rule enacted Friday by county elections Supervisor Theresa LePore prohibiting journalists from photographing or interviewing voters outside of polling places.
The Election Protection Coalition, an affiliate of the civil rights group People for the American Way, filed a lawsuit Monday against LePore and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Circuit Judge David Crow . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · November 15, 2004 · Broadcasting
Some stations pass on "Private Ryan" over indecency concerns
Nov. 15, 2004 -- ABC stations, including those owned by Cox Television, Citadel Communications, Belo Corp., Hearst-Argyle and Scripps Howard Broadcasting, decided Wednesday not to air the 1998 war movie "Saving Private Ryan" on Veterans Day, The Washington Post reported.
Most of the same stations aired the unedited film -- which contains graphic violence and profanity -- on the holiday in 2001 and 2002. But the FCC's March ruling that U2 singer Bono's use of the phrase "fucking brilliant" on national television was indecent and profane has sparked concern, The Post reported.
Dennis Wharton, senior vice president of communications at the National Broadcasters Association, said the situation highlights the dilemma many stations face in crackdowns in broadcast indecency. "It's an unfortunate situation and many stations are putting their license on the line without any clear guidance from the FCC on what's appropriate and what's not," he said in an interview.
NAB "doesn't have answers, but we do have a lot of questions about what the FCC rules and what the crackdown means," he said. "We have trouble understanding why it's so difficult [for a . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE CALIFORNIA · January 7, 2005 · Freedom of information
Red Cross Guantanamo findings do not have to be released
Jan. 7, 2005 -- Exhaustive reporting on the United States' treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay does not mean the Defense Department must release its correspondence on the subject with the
International Committee of the Red Cross, a federal district court in San Jose, Calif., ruled Dec. 21.
The case grew out of a May 2003 Freedom of Information Act request by journalist Joshua Gerstein for correspondence related to Red Cross findings on abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
After six months without a response, Gerstein, a staff reporter for The New York Sun , sued. The November 2003 suit compelled the Defense Department to respond to his records request in August 2004. The agency withheld about 965 documents, releasing fragments of 35 more. The department then filed a motion with the court, asking it to rule that its response complied with its obligations under the FOI Act.
In its Vaughn index -- a description of each document withheld and an explanation as to why it was sealed -- the Defense Department said that some of the records were classified, but that the majority of the records could be protected by a federal law that allows some . . . [more]
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QUICKLINK Florida · August 7, 2009 · Freedom of information
Florida Attorney General weighs in on NCAA documents dispute
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has stepped into the battle of the Florida news organizations against the National College Athletics Association and Florida State University over a records dispute, the Orlando Sentinel reported. McCollum filed a friend-of-the-court brief this week backing up the press in their claim that the university has tried to sidestep the state's Sunshine Law.
"The sports issues are almost irrelevant," the Sentinel reported . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 3:54 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Oklahoma · April 6, 2010 · Freedom of information
Oklahoma sells employee data withheld from records requests
Oklahoma has made more than $65 million in the last five years selling its citizens' private information -- including birth dates of state employees that it has refused to release in response to public records requests, The Oklahoman and Tulsa World reported.
Oklahoma has been making about $10 from the information in each motor vehicle or public school record that it sells. Just last week, the Oklahoma Public Employee Association . . . [more]
— Christine Beckett, 4:30 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New York · May 14, 2010 · Reporter's privilege
Documentary group opposes Chevron's review of unused footage
A documentary association and filmmakers this week wrote an open letter opposing a judge’s ruling that Chevron could review a documentarian’s raw footage and stressed the importance of shield laws for reporters.
A New York federal judge last week ruled that although filmmaker Joe Berlinger’s work for his oil industry documentary "Crude" fell under the definition of newsgathering for purposes of a qualified reporter’s privilege, the . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 5:40 pm · View reader comments (1)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · November 19, 2007 · State open government
E-mail retention practices roil Missouri, Texas governors
Less than two weeks after a federal judge ordered the White House to save copies of e-mail messages, the issue has sparked controversy between open government advocates and the governors of two states.
In Missouri, Gov. Matt Blunt questioned the legal authority of his attorney general, Jay Nixon, to look into his administration's e-mail practices.
Nixon announced last week that he was appointing a team to examine "multiple allegations" that the governor's staff was not complying with state laws on preserving records, including e-mails, and making them available to the public. (While he said he would not play any part in the probe, it should be acknowledged that Nixon, a Democrat, is challenging Blunt, a Republican, in the 2008 governor's race.)
Meanwhile, in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has come under fire for deleting e-mail messages . . . [more]
— Jennifer Koons, 2:19 pm · View reader comments (1) COMMENTARY · January 3, 2008 · State open government Should a FOIA Ombudsman punish or persuade? The position of public records ombudsman is rapidly becoming a regular feature of state open records laws. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Washington, Arizona and now Tennessee all have a state ombudsman with public records jurisdiction. But a new statewide survey by Indiana University’s Center for Survey Research on behalf of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government (ICOG) casts doubt on the public's confidence in a records ombudsman without enforcement powers. According to the survey, 91% of the people who used the services of Indiana's ombudsman, called the Public Access Counselor or PAC, felt the office should include the authority to punish state officials who violate open records
— Loren Cochran, 5:17 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK · February 29, 2008 · State open government
Open records bill approved by S.D. House
The South Dakota House passed a bill that sets up a procedure to resolve disputes over access to government records. If a request is denied, the citizen may appeal to the state Office of Hearing Examiners for review to determine if the records should be released. The bill would make appealing denials quicker and less expensive.
SB186 has already passed in the state Senate, but heads back to the chamber for approval of any adjustments the House may have made.
— Alanna Malone, 12:01 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK California · March 18, 2008 · State open government
'SFBG' looks at public access in San Francisco
Open government laws are often the focus of efforts when journalists and journalism organizations want to increase the openness of governments, but an article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian reminds us that simple technological fixes can often be an equally effective first step. The Sunshine Week issues also has articles on the problem of . . . [more]
— Posted at 4:41 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · September 27, 2000 · Intellectual property
Napster interested in compensating artists for works, it says
The music-sharing web site Napster supports copyright laws and is interested in setting up a system to compensate artists for their copyrighted works, an attorney for the online company told a group of 150 attorneys and students at a panel discussion in Washington Sept. 26.
"We would be happy to support technology to protect copyright," said Gary Slaiman, a partner at Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman, the law firm which represents Napster. Slaiman also said the major record labels have rebuffed Napster's offer to enter a business venture together. "You would think with [Napster's] 30 million customers, they would want to talk to us," he said.
Napster is an Internet website that allows users to freely access each other's music files. Napster itself does not copy or transfer these files, but allows users to share them using "peer-to-peer" file-sharing technology. No safeguards are in place to prevent users from trading copyrighted files.
The seminar, "Copyright in Cyberspace: The Napster Quandary," probed the limits of appropriate legal protection for artistic works in cyberspace. Moderated by attorney David Kendall, the panel included attorneys, a . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · September 28, 2000 · Freedom of information
Court examines FOI expedited review in Diana records case
A federal district court judge in Washington, D.C. laid ground rules for court enforcement of relatively new and, so far, little used regulations allowing Freedom of Information Act requesters to seek priority responses at federal agencies.
In late September, Judge Colleen Kollar Kotelly denied an injunction to force federal agencies to expedite requests from Mohamed Al Fayed and Punch Limited, the British political satire magazine he owns, for records on the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and his son Dodi. The two died in a car crash in France in 1997 .
Afterward Al Fayed fell victim to a fraudulent scheme to sell him fabricated Central Intelligence Agency documents suggesting that the crash was a successful assassination of the Princess and his son by British intelligence. He and Punch tried to gain more information on the crash and related events, ultimately filing 21 requests to branches of federal agencies. They asked for expedited review of their requests under the provisions of the Electronic FOI Act of 1996 saying the information potentially points to federal government knowledge of British intelligence involvement in the crash and of the attempted . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. · December 4, 2000 · Broadcasting
High court allows release of Bush-Gore hearing tapes
For the first time in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, the arguments before the justices were broadcast, albeit tape-delayed, to public on the same day.
The events of Dec. 1 marked a milestone in the attempts to gain greater access to the nation's highest court. The Court released an audio tape of the oral arguments in the appeal by Gov. George W. Bush of the Florida Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the constitutionality of an extended deadline to complete manual counts of ballots in three counties.
Fifteen minutes after the 90-minute hearing ended, ABC, the media pool provider for December, ran the recording in its entirety to all the other media outlets.
"Usually the tapes aren't available until the end of the session around July. This is a break- through for the media," Charles Bierbaur, the CNN Supreme Court correspondent, said of the actions of the Supreme Court press office.
Without live coverage, media outlets such as C-SPAN, CNN and MSNBC improvised by airing the audio along with images of the speakers and a running closed-caption text of the hearing. CNN provided viewers with brief biographies of the attorneys and nine . . . [more]
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. SUPREME COURT · March 28, 2001 · Intellectual property
Justices hear freelancers' claims to publishing rights
In a case asking the U.S. Supreme Court to interpret a three-decade-old federal statute to emerging technology, freelance writers faced off against publishers on March 28 about the question of copyright ownership to contributed material. The decision from the justices will decide what happens to thousands of newspaper and magazine articles archived on electronic databases.
Jonathan Tasini, president of the National Writers Union, and several other freelancers sued several periodicals in 1997 for copyright infringement of articles the publications sold to electronic databases such as NEXIS. The publications, which include The New York Times, Newsday and Sports Illustrated, claim the contributed articles are part of a "collective work" and protected by section 201(c) of the Copyright Act of 1976. The electronic databases are simply revisions of the publications, according to the publishers.
Much of the oral arguments at the Supreme Court centered on the similarities and differences of the print world and the electronic world.
A prevailing theme of questions from several of the justices concerned what exactly the publications send to . . . [more]
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