From Courthousenews.com:
In announcing Tuesday it will give the public access to noteworthy cases via audio livestream, the federal court system will move a few rungs closer to the 21st century — at least in 13 districts.
These livestreams will be available on the courts’ designated YouTube channels in real-time, the U.S. Courts said Tuesday.
“While the pilot temporarily suspends a prohibition on broadcasting federal court proceedings in the designated courts, the livestreams may not be recorded or rebroadcast,” the federal judiciary said. The Judicial Conference of the United States adopted a prohibition against “broadcasting, televising, recording, or taking photographs in the courtroom and areas immediately adjacent thereto” in 1972 for both criminal and civil cases.
U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig chairs the courts’ national policy-making body, which authorized the test program earlier this year. Its purpose, she said in a statement, is to study the livestreaming civil proceeding audio from policy, technical, operational, budgetary and administrative perspectives.
The pilot is also a nod to the federal judiciary’s commitment to transparency and increasing public access to court proceedings, Fleissig said, noting this is “an issue that has taken on even greater importance in the last year” as many courts have been forced to restrict in-person public access to courthouses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At the same time, we want to develop the best practices for the process and ensure that any new practices do not compromise the integrity of federal court proceedings. That is why we are taking a measured and deliberative approach by working with volunteer pilot courts,” Fleissig said.
The move is a big one for reporters across the country who will have a much easier time covering high-profile cases, said Genelle Belmas, an associate journalism professor at the University of Kansas. The Kansas Federal Court is participating in the program.
“This is a big step in the right direction for making material available, making content available to reporters,” she said in a phone interview, adding that federal courts are just beginning to “dip a toe in the water” when it comes to expanding virtual proceedings in line with the appellate courts.
“Journalists complain a lot about not having sufficient access and this makes it so that there are fewer excuses,” Belmas said.
2 comments:
This could’ve been useful two weeks ago.
I've thought for months that courts' not doing this violates public access rights, especially in cases where all parties, including the judge, appear via Zoom from the comfort of home. All proceedings, which in normal times would be open to the public, become in essence sealed proceedings absent a livestream to which all have access. I get not posting the Zoom credentials, as that has led to public interruption in a few widely publicized incidents, but until the courts are all fully open for business again they really ought to open it up much more.
Post a Comment