Tweeting Deemed Not 'Broadcasting' And Allowed In Courtroom

from the nice-of-them dept

Michael Scott points us to a case in Connecticut state court, in which "broadcasting" from the courtroom was forbidden, but there was a debate over whether or not Twittering from the courtroom should be allowed. The arguments go back and forth, noting that there are some similarities to broadcasting with Twitter, but not necessarily enough. The judge then looked at the reason behind prohibiting broadcasting, and realized it was to keep direct images from being seen, but that reporting from the courtroom should be allowed. The only concern is if the actions were disruptive (such as with a loud keyboard), but noted that such problems could be dealt with on a case by case basis. The guy trying to restrict the use of Twitter claimed that such "communications tend to be either trivial or inaccurate and thus play no useful role in educating the public about the judicial process," but the judge pointed out that a court should not be controlling the "substance of courtroom reporting," and said that Twittering would be allowed, so long as there is no disruption (which would be dealt with specifically). Seems like a reasonable outcome.
Hide this

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

Filed Under: broadcasting, connecticut, courtroom, tweeting


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Daph, 28 Mar 2011 @ 7:08pm

    Holy spinning newspapers!

    This just in: being reasonable is now newsworthy! Americans experience dizziness from simultaneous mass double-taking!

    Follow this on Twitter! We're out of exclamation points?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      xenomancer (profile), 28 Mar 2011 @ 8:37pm

      Re: Holy spinning newspapers!

      This just in, fewer exclamation points left on Earth than atoms of Fancium@ Use your reserves with dear caution@ We have squandered this precious resource and failed to provide monetary incentives to make more for everyone else@

      This also just in: death of joke causes neck injuries across the country from severity of disgusted head shakes.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike Doherty, 28 Mar 2011 @ 8:16pm

    Doubly reasonable

    It's also the right way to approach this. Go back to first principles - *why* is broadcasting prohibited? What about that reasoning applies? What doesn't? And make an informed decision on that basis.

    Sadly, I'm impressed. This level of quality should be the norm.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      xenomancer (profile), 28 Mar 2011 @ 8:39pm

      Re: Doubly reasonable

      "This level of quality should be the norm."
      QFT

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Sean T Henry (profile), 29 Mar 2011 @ 7:11am

      Re: Doubly reasonable

      "Go back to first principles - *why* is broadcasting prohibited?"

      They do not want news stations with cameras sitting in the court room taking up space and distracting people. Think any time that there is a high profile case would it be good to have the four local stations and a national one or two taking up space.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bernard Gilroy, 29 Mar 2011 @ 4:12am

    So, one would assume that tweeting pictures (i.e., from your cellphone) would still be banned? Because that would be broadcasting direct images.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.