By: Staff Reports First Amendment Issue Appears in Wiretapping Case
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), based in Indianapolis,
has filed friend-of-court briefs for two cases that the organization
believes threaten the newsgathering process.
In a wiretapping case to be heard by the Supreme Court on Dec. 5, the
SPJ, along with a coalition of more than 20 media organizations, asked
the high court to uphold an earlier appeals court decision. The
Philadelphia court found news media to be free of any liability in
cases where the contents of an intercepted communication are made
public but the media does not participate in the interception.
The case, Barnicki vs. Vopper, involves a radio talk show host
who aired segments of an illegally recorded cellular phone conversation
between a teacher's union president and union negotiator.
The other case, State vs. Hill, involves a murder defendant who
has challenged a Fairfield County, Ohio, rule that makes juries
presumptively anonymous. The SPJ has joined a brief written by the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press that argues presumptive
secrecy in the court system violates the First Amendment rights of the
public and the press.
The appeal has been sent to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Both briefs were filed by Bruce Brown, counsel to the SPJ on First
Amendment issues and an attorney for Baker & Hostetler LLP in
Washington, D.C. The briefs can be found on
the SPJ's Web site.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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