Judge Warns Media That It's Contempt To Publish Public Materials
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...Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team