media law

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently ruled that a reporter didn't have to disclose the identity of a confidential source for  a 2004 story about a federal ethics investigation into a former U.S. attorney, MLive's Khalil AlHajal reports.

David Ashenfelter, who at the time was a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, wrote a story about how then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino handled a terrorism case in which the two defendants later had their convictions overturned. Convertino has pursued a Privacy Act Claim, claiming he was punished by the leak about the federal ethics investigation into him.

When Ashenfelter was deposed in Convertino's suit, Ashenfelter asserted a Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination. The Sixth Circuit agreed that he couldn't be compelled to expose his confidential sources due to '"the possibility of prosecution."'

New York court officials are looking to expand the rules governing the use of cameras in the courtroom so they can be used to "'to the fullest extent permissible by the law,'" New York Law Journal's Andrew Keshner reports. The rules for the use of cameras in the courtroom haven't been updated since the 1990s.

The proposed new roles would insert new language saying "'in order to maintain the broadest scope of public access to the courts,' and promote confidence and understanding of the judicial system, 'it is the policy of the Unified Court System to facilitate the audio-visual coverage of court proceedings to the fullest extent permitted by the New York Civil Rights Law and other statutes."'

Public comment must be received by August 10.
 

The D.C. Circuit has refused to block the release of videos showing a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay being force-fed, The Intercept's Cora Currier reports. Media organizations are seeking footage of Abu Wa'el Dhiab's force-feedings, and the district court granted their motion to unseal and release the video.

The court concluded that the district court's decision was not an immediately appealable order and that it lacks jurisdiction

The D.C. Circuit has refused to block the release of videos showing a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay being force-fed, The Intercept's Cora Currier reports. Media organizations are seeking footage of Abu Wa'el Dhiab's force-feedings, and the district court granted their motion to unseal and release the video.

The court concluded that the district court's decision was not an immediately appealable order and that it lacks jurisdiction

The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that state's law allowing defamation defendants to get cases thrown out early violates the constitutional right to a trial by jury, the Volokh Conspiracy's Eugene Volokh reports. The anti-SLAPP law says defamation plaintiffs can only move forward with their cases if they can show they would prevail by clear and convincing evidence, and the Washington Supreme Court said this stringent standard violates the right to a jury in civil cases. Volokh notes that many other states have anti-SLAPP statutes that only require judges to determine if the plaintiffs has "stated and substantiated a legally sufficient claim," not to weigh evidence.

While West Virginia does not have an academic-freedom exemption to its public records law, that state's high court has ruled that documents that are "internal memoranda" from a university researcher's examination of the impact of mountaintop-removal mining on public health are exempt from disclosure.

The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. reports that Alpha Natural Resources' efforts to get West Virginia University to release research documents would expose the predecisional, deliberative "'decision-making process in such a way as to hinder candid discussion' by university faculty and 'undermine WVU’s ability to perform its operations.'" The court was examining the exemption for internal governmental communications reflecting a "'public body's deliberative, decision-making process."'

Researcher Michael Hendryx has found that people living near mountaintop removal face increased risks of premature death, cancer and birth defects.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last week that a prosecutor must pay attorney fees to The Cincinnati Enquirer for withholding 911 recordings, that newspaper's Kevin Grasha reports. The prosecutor did not have legal authority to withhold the recordings from a murder case, the court ruled, and must pay attorney fees to the newspaper.

The Sixth Circuit has ruled that a congressman wasn't defamed when an anti-abortion advocacy group falsely tied his vote in support of Obamacare to supporting abortion, Courthouse News' Kevin Koeninger reports. Steven Driehaus, a pro-life Democrat, lost reelection, and he filed a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission, alleging that the Susan B. Anthony List group falsely advertised that his vote in support of Obamacare supported "taxpayer-funded abortion." Even if the SBA List's statements were actually false, the former politician couldn't prove that SBA List knew the statements were false or entertained serious doubts as to their truth, the Sixth Circuit ruled.

Colorado lawmakers have delayed a vote on legislation that would criminalize the use of drones and other surveillance technology to photograph or monitor people, the Associated Press reports. The legislation would make it a crime first-degree trespassing to take images of someone with a reasonable expectation of privacy. One legislator said the bill, as drafted, would be a "'teribbly sweeping criminalization of photography.'"

The sponsor asked for a delay in the vote on the bill in order to rework it.

A New York Assemblyman has proposed legislation that would make it a felony to film patients receiving medical treatment without prior consent and give patients and their families a private cause of action to sue for damages, ProPublica's Charles Ornstein reports. The bill was filed after a TV show aired the final moments of a patient's life while he was being treated at NewYork-Presybterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and his wife recognized his voice when she saw the episode. New York does not recognize a common law right to privacy.