Judge Warns Media That It's Contempt To Publish Public Materials

Legal Issues

from the this-doesn't-seem-right dept

While half the reason for this article appears to be Declan McCullagh’s revenge on the judge in the James Bell trial for making him testify last week, it does bring up some free speech issues. The judge has announced that no one is allowed to republish the list of jurors in the case even though that list is publicly available on the court’s website. The judge is claiming that anyone who does publish it will be held in contempt – though it’s questionable how far his jurisdiction goes. The Wired article also gives fairly complete instructions on how to get the list yourself. You would think that McCullagh wouldn’t be reporting on this case as it’s a bit of a conflict of interest – but I guess journalistic ethics are going the way of free internet content…