The eighth monthly session of PNA Foundation’s yearlong Journalism Training Certification Program featured five media lawyers discussing the First Amendment and navigating press rights.
PNA’s media law counsel Melissa Bevan Melewsky and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press senior supervising attorney Paula Knudsen Burke moderated the session. The panelists were: Kaitlin M. Gurney, partner at Ballard Spahr LLP (Philadelphia); Heather Murray, associate director at the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic; and Sara Rose, deputy legal director at ACLU of Pennsylvania.
Five takeaways from the journalism training:
- Reporters often can get better access to court records by visiting the courthouse at the state and federal level than they can online.
- If court records are sealed, submit a letter to the court or file a motion to ask the court to lift the access restrictions.
- Any seal must be supported by on-the-record findings of a compelling interest and court orders limiting access must use the least restrictive means.
- Hearing the word “seal” when it comes to court records should raise a red flag for journalists. There’s a lot of sealing that shouldn’t be happening.
- When a government event or area is open to press access, the government generally cannot discriminate among which reporters or media outlets are admitted based on their coverage. However, if a reporter or media outlet is barred, keep records of any correspondence or other communications that illustrate content-based restrictions so that it can be used as evidence in a legal challenge.
- Journalists covering news in and around courthouses must be aware of and abide by court rules and criminal statutes that prohibit photos and videos in courtrooms and their environs.
- If a judge enters a decorum order governing press access in a particular case, failing to abide by it could lead to contempt proceedings.
The journalism training program continues Dec. 8 with a session on Ethics & Bias in Journalism – Implementing and Maintaining Standards.