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Miami Beach police allegedly confiscate video of police shooting

donal brown June 9, 2011

After Miami Beach police shot and killed a suspect on a public street, they allegedly confiscated a video devise from a witness Narces Benoit and roughed up him and his girlfriend in the process. The police said Benoit was seized as a witness and denied that they stomped on his cellphone. Free press supporters say unless Benoit had posted it on YouTube, the public would never have known the details of the police shooting since

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Study shows traditional media plays crucial role in enforcing open govenment

donal brown April 26, 2011

Research by a Brigham Young professor revealed that newspapers are behind almost every court case and law promoting public access and open government. With newspaper revenues shrinking, it is not guaranteed that as bloggers take over much of the reporting that they will be able to challenge government agencies. The online news publication ProPublica that does investigative reports is fortunate to have pro bono legal work, but others may have to bank on greater transparency

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Loading up costs of public records requests defeats access

donal brown April 25, 2011

In a guest commentary in The Salt Lake Tribune, Brigham Young professor Joel Campbell says that a proposed new public record request law in Utah would hurt public access to records. “[The law]…would not only pay fees to cover the ‘actual cost’ of providing the records, but it also added new charges for overhead and administration. That would have undone Utah GRAMA’s current and narrowly drawn ‘actual cost’ provision, which is among the best in

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Federal appeals court rules lower court must unseal Google report

donal brown April 18, 2011

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted MediaPost’s request for a court document with details of Google’s compliance with an order for it to deactivate a Gmail user’s account. The court ruled the district court had not made the case that the public had no right to access the report. The dispute originated with a bank who had mistakenly sent sensitive customer data to a Gmail address and asked Google to provide information about

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Federal Judicial Center releases guide on sealed courts

donal brown February 28, 2011

The Federal Judicial Center released a guide for federal judges deciding whether to seal court records and proceedings. The 22-page booklet includes a history of case law on secret proceedings and a list of First and Sixth Amendment issues. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 25, 2011, by Lyndsey Wajert. Full Story

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