Paper Fights State to Hold On to Reporters' Hard Drives

Posted Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:00 am

By: A newspaper hopes to persuade the state Supreme Court to reverse an order that it surrender two more reporters' computer hard drives.

The state is investigating whether Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner gave reporters for the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster his password to a secure law enforcement Web site, according to court documents. Kirchner has denied doing so.

The state Supreme Court was expected to consider the petition Wednesday, said William A. DeStefano, attorney for the paper's owner, Lancaster Newspapers Inc.

The petition asks the court to block enforcement of an Aug. 17 subpoena by a state grand jury and a $1,000-a-day contempt citation imposed Thursday for not complying. Enforcement would violate the First Amendment, the Federal Privacy Protection Act and the Pennsylvania Shield Law for journalists, the petition argues.

The paper was forced to surrender four computer hard drives in March after the high court refused to intervene.

When the paper refused to comply with the additional subpoenas this month, a grand jury supervising judge cited the newspaper company for contempt, opening the way for the new appeal, DeStefano said.

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Paper Fights State to Hold On to Reporters' Hard Drives

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