Judge Tells Newspapers They Can't Report On News About College Trip Since It Might Impact College Funding
from the that-whole-first-amendment-thing dept
Via Romenesko we learn that a judge in Wyoming has issued a temporary restraining order against two local newspapers, barring them from reporting about a trip by the local community college's president to Costa Rica, saying that the report was stolen... and that publishing the info could cause the college to lose federal funding. At issue is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prevents colleges from revealing private info about students (a good thing). But here it's clearly being misused. Yes, the report may include some student info, but that should not, in any way, bar publishing a story about what happened. Furthermore, that the document was leaked shouldn't bar publication either. If that were the case, there would never be any whistleblower stories out there, or stories like the one about the Pentagon Papers. Update: Well, that didn't last long. The original order has been dissolved, though this now has helped bring much more attention to the original story.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.
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Filed Under: college, first amendment, free speech, journalism, privacy, reporting, whistleblowing, wyoming
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Order Vacated
http://cbs4denver.com/wireapnewswy/Judge.dissolves.order.2.1712784.html
Can't wait to see what's in the report.
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Re: Order Vacated
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I would have never read this report...
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I'd like to read the report as well.
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The proverbial rake
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No Wonder They Wanted This Supressed
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