News Media and the Law

Limiting the reporter's privilege to information that would reveal a confidential source does not protect the newsgathering processNews coverage of die shooting of a drug dealer has led to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that rolls back the protections...

GUEST COMMENTARYAfter years of covering the courts, I thought I knew the basics. Crimes are charged and prosecuted, lawsuits are filed and fought, and every case is publicly accounted for on the court's extensive docket.But some federal courts keep a...

Charter schools learning to comply with state freedom of information lawsSteve Bivens heard all the rumors, but it wasn't until local school officials began stonewalling his reporters that he knew he was on to something big.As producer for the "undercover...

To get public information from the federal government, you might have to wait for more than a decade.A survey released in November 2003 by the National Security Archive, an organization dedicated to ensuring public access to government information, found...

Public interest in various high-pro file trials over the past few months paved the way for greater camera access to America's courtrooms.For the first time ever, the Supreme Court of Delaware is allowing cameras in the state's Supreme and Chancery courts,...

COMMENTARYThe unusual cases of Wen ho Lee and Valerie Flame have caused more than a few erstwhile defenders of the First Amendment to switch sides, at least for the moment, and declaim loudly that surely the journalists involved in these incidents must...

A recent collection of funny, fascinating, nonsensical or just notable newsworthy quotations."The highest office in the land requires the highest level of openness for the American people. We've all seen the damage this administration has done by hiding...

Freedom of information audits are helping states and counties across the nation highlight the challenges in accessing public recordsIs requesting public records a crime? It may sometimes seem that way, especially to California resident Barry Duncan.In...

Information on how public money is being spent to reconstruct Iraq is as elusive as America's search for weapons of mass destructionThe U.S. government has committed billions of taxpayer dollars to rebuild Iraq's war-torn infrastructure, with little...

Presidential candidates attempt to shield records of their past public serviceGeorge W. Bush and Howard Dean, two former governors who have campaigned for the presidency by emphasizing their records as state executives, have ironically gone to great...

U.S. Supreme Court weighs 'survivor privacy' interests in FOI case over death-scene photographs of former White House counsel Vince FosterIn early December, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the government challenge California attorney Allan Favish's right...