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Friday, March 06, 2009

Courts - "Live coverage boosts access to federal courtrooms"

A lengthy story today in the Washington Post, reported by Roxana Hegeman, datelined Wichita, includes these quotes:

n a victory for news technology in federal courts, a judge is allowing a reporter to use the microblogging service Twitter to provide constant updates from a racketeering gang trial this week.

It's not the first time online streaming has been allowed in courtrooms, but the practice is still rare in the federal system, especially in criminal cases.

A couple of lawyers voiced concern about the possibility that a juror might visit the online site to read the posts from Ron Sylvester, a reporter for the Wichita Eagle, but U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten said jurors are always told to avoid newspaper, broadcast and online reports.

"You either trust your jurors to live with the admonishment, or you don't," he said. * * *

Sylvester has been using Twitter for a year to cover hearings and trials in state courts, but the racketeering trial of six Crips gang defendants that he's covering online this week is his first in federal court. * * *

Across the country, tech-savvy federal judges are becoming increasingly receptive to live courtroom media coverage using emerging technologies. Such coverage from journalists reporting from trials in state courts is already common.

The federal judiciary has historically been more restrictive in criminal trials, with some U.S. Supreme Court justices adamantly opposed to cameras in their courts.

Federal judges have wide discretion on how to run trials when it comes to emerging online technologies.

"The more we can do to open the process to the public, the greater the public understanding _ the more legitimacy the public system will have in the eyes of the public," Marten said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"This is so far removed from cameras and, frankly, cameras are coming too," Marten said of the online blogging.

The long story includes a number of examples.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 6, 2009 08:43 AM
Posted to Courts in general