Lawyers Working Hard for the Press

Behind the scenes of our newspapers there’s been a lot of work recently by lawyers! Yep, the folks we’ve often nagged and cajoled for information for our stories are also often working side by side with us.

In the past couple months, I’ve spent plenty of time with lawyers and they are pushing as hard as anyone in our business on First Amendment issues.

The work of Carol Melamed of The Washington Post, along with our lobbyist Jim Doyle and support from attorneys Mary Craig and Alice Lucan, on access to court records has been part of a battle they’ve been fighting for us for months.

And there’s plenty still to be done. Much of it is behind the scenes, but the issue over court access is a critical one.

Meanwhile, MDDC’s FOI Subcommittee will continue to plan strategy for this coming session in Maryland’s General Assembly, as well as keeping an eye on newspaper issues in the District of Columbia and in Delaware.

Our efforts in the 2001 General Assembly on getting agreement on some fixes to Maryland’s 30-year-old Public Information Law met with resistance in Annapolis. We are weighing what our efforts should be this coming session.

And from my part of Maryland, attorney Henry Abrams and Kimberly Manuelides of Saul Ewing won an important public information case in Frederick County with the release of the so-called "black book." That battle was fought on behalf of The Frederick News-Post and The Associated Press by Abrams for the past 11 months. The book was turned over to the News-Post and the AP in early November. (See story page 1.)

It was an interesting case from the start, because the two news organizations were seeking the documents that had been part of a police investigation of criminal activity and which were to have been evidence in a trial (which were never introduced because of a plea bargain). It was a simple question: Were they public documents? The judge ruled they were but, on the day he signed the order to release them, he made the case and the issue more interesting by adding to the order his hand-written directive that names could be published only of public officials and public figures. It had us wondering about prior restraint issues and we’re sure to see that in court in the future.

So, much time with lawyers lately. I’ve seen their efforts and enthusiasm for the First Amendment as strong as that of many of our fellow journalists.