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Friday, March 23, 2007
Courts - More on "Series on improperly sealed court files nominated for Pulitzer"
Earlier this month the ILB posted an entry on the Seattle Times series, titled "Your Courts, Their Secrets."
This week another Seattle publication, Seattle Weekly, has this story, titled "Your News, Their Secrets." The story begins:
The Seattle Times' 2006 investigative series called "Your Courts, Their Secrets" has already won a National Headliner Award, came close last week to winning a celebrated Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and is said to be a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize next month. Using lawsuits to force local courts to open case files previously sealed by judges, the paper uncovered stories about a 13-year-old girl raped while in the state's care, school principals who ignored a teacher's fondling of students, and a medical malpractice suit that cost the University of Washington more than $3 million, to mention a few. In a pat on its own back, the Times said the series changed the way the courts operate and that the practice of file sealing "has evaporated."Good for the Times. But when it comes to its own legal affairs on matters of public import, the newspaper has taken the opposite tack. The Seattle Times Co. is refusing to allow a citizens' group to view legal documents or sit in on a key arbitration hearing next month on its 24-year-old joint operating agreement (JOA) with the Hearst Corp.'s Seattle Post-Intelligencer—a session that could determine whether the city of Seattle continues to have two daily newspapers.
"Ironic, isn't it," attorney Kathy George says with a wry smile. "We raised a similar point [about the Times' hypocrisy] in our arguments." A former P-I reporter, George is hoping to save her old newspaper in the courtroom, acting as legal counsel for the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town (CTNT).
In court papers, George noted that "the Times and Hearst have been leading advocates in our state and federal courts for openness in the civil and criminal justice systems," even going to court, as the Times did, for example, in the file-sealing series last year, to pry out secrets. "In light of the considerable body of case law that the Times and Hearst have developed in an open justice system, it is ethically and legally indefensible for them to insist upon secrecy in their own legal dispute."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 23, 2007 01:00 PM
Posted to Courts in general