Friday, February 11, 2011

Florida Bar Attacks Bloggers ... by gimleteye

One of the great moments in recent Miami-Dade history was when union bosses ganged up on Geniusofdespair at the courtroom where Natacha Seijas was forced to defend her recall lawsuit, and aimed their cell phone cameras at her despite the fact of a Miami Herald reporter standing nearby. It was a form of intimidation to be sure, but it was also a recognition of a significant addition in the public sphere to the influence of the mainstream media. Bloggers whose coverage of politics cannot be pushed off the front page. Now comes an interesting initiative by The Florida Bar to limit the influence of citizen journalists.

I'm reposting below, a notice forwarded to me by an avid reader of EOM. Certainly, if this rule were in effect, Natacha would have been more comfortable walking into Miami court the other day. Part of our dismal politics in Miami-Dade is the confidence by insiders who wire the system that no one is paying attention. We do.

Attorneys Attack Rights of Citizen Journalists

The Florida Bar has proposed a new rule to eliminate coverage of court proceedings by citizen journalists. The Bar’s proposed rule 5257801004AA25E> prohibits anyone other than an employee of a traditional media outlet or an official court reporter from using any device which can make video or audio recording from being brought into a court including laptop computers. Of course, the proposed rule allows the courts to continue to record you, but unfortunately, the courts usually don’t want to give up their own recordings without a fight even though they are required to do so.

Ironically, not long ago, the Florida Supreme Court celebrated its
longstanding rule upholding the First and Sixth Amendment rights to public
trials by requiring courts to allow video and audio recording of court
proceedings. In an article about this, the Justices noted that allowing
cameras in courts had not caused a single problem. An article about this was
available on the Florida Bar Journal’s web site at this link
5257582005402FD> until recently. Try the link. Maybe the Bar’s web site was
down or maybe it is just blocking me. Anyway, due to the fact that the
Florida Bar Journal is a government publication and due the Fair Use
doctrine, I have posted a copy of this article
09> on Scribd.

Naturally, the Bar decided to try to fool everyone, including the Justices
of the Florida Supreme Court, by disguising its proposed rule as one
prohibiting electronic recording by jurors. However, the Bar’s proposed rule
allows judges to prohibit everyone other than employees of the traditional
news media and official court reporters from recording proceedings.

As usual, the people who control the Florida Bar didn’t bother to consider
any case law before trying to create a lower class of journalists. If they
had bothered to look anything up (assuming that they are actually attempting
to uphold the law), they would have found that the Florida Supreme Court
previously held:

“Freedom of the press is not, and has never been a private property right
granted to those who own the news media. It is a cherished and almost sacred
right of each citizen to be informed about current events on a timely basis
so each can exercise his discretion in determining the destiny and security
of himself, other people, and the Nation. News delayed is news denied. To be
useful to the public, news events must be reported when they occur. Whatever
happens in any courtroom directly or indirectly affects all the public. To
prevent star-chamber injustice the public should generally have unrestricted
access to all proceedings.”

12 comments:

Mensa said...

I had a feeling that the Florida bar stunk. There were too many dishonest attornys allowed to continue to screw the public. And if they were a politician they could do anything and not be bothered by the bar. I am ashamed to be a lawyer.

Anonymous said...

Mensa, or anyone who knows - does the Florida Bar read the opinions of the Florida Supreme Court?

If I'm reading this right, what the Bar is trying to do, is going against a decision already made.

How can this be and how can they enforce it?

I find this worse than the bullying by the Unions/VNS to disenfranchise both the voters and free speech.

The Florida bar is just incredible (not in a good way) and stupid at the same time.

This just makes me really happy that the Attorney General is investigating some law firms, they need to dig a little more though, as it's clear with what they're trying to do to keep the public away from what IS PUBLIC.

South Florida Lawyers said...

Hmm, I haven't heard of this and would need to see the language of the actual proposed rule.

There is an interest worth protecting of the court transcript being the official record of any judicial proceeding, but I don't get where the Bar may be going here on gallery members recording public testimony in a public forum.

youbetcha' said...

Many attorneys do not have any use for the FLA Bar, other than they have to kiss their butt to get approved and take their test to practice law... once that is over they avoid them unless the need to get CEs.

al crespo said...

Given the fractured nature of the relationship between various political blogs - at least in South Florida - it will probably be easy to get this passed.

I willing to standup to oppose this kind of effort, but who else?

Michael Kain said...

Their use of the phrase 'traditional media' is interesting. During my Clark Kent day job, I deal with these ambiguous issues constantly. Surely 'traditional' media cannot mean blogs, otherwise... the Herald, WSVN, WPBT, and whoever would all be out of business. Rules need to be enforceable and therefore, not ambiguous. I'd like to see this one stand for long.

Sparrow said...

The Florida Bar better not be spending my Bar dues on fighting for this, since to me its ideological crap. A supreme court case in 1980 (Keller v. The State Bar of California) held "the State Bar’s use of petitioner's compulsory dues to finance political and ideological activities with which petitioners disagree violates their First Amendment right of free speech when such expenditures are not necessarily or reasonably incurred for the purpose of regulating the legal profession or improving the quality of legal services."

They may argue that a rule limiting who may record court sessions is attempting to improve quality of legal services, but that holds no water. The rule violates both bloggers' 1st amendment rights, and pushing for it violates my rights as a bar member to have my dues spent on legitimate, non-ideological proposals...

The Straw Buyer said...

I've had several run ins with bailiffs regarding video and audio recordings during a hearing, even after my lawyers told me that at the very least the audio recordings were perfectly legal considering it was a public hearing.

Once they couldnt stop me from audio recording the hearing the douchebag prosecutor asked the judge to have the hearing moved into chambers at which time the judge told him absolutely not.

Later when I tried to fill out the paperwork to be able to video record the hearings I was told that I couldn't because I wasn't a member of the media! What is it that they're so afraid of? Recording prosecutors screw people? Recording judges making bad rulings?

I made my recordings anyway, some of the stuff I got is simply amazing, prosecutor not knowing his case, lying to the judge and even going so far as to negate the facts of the very arrest affidavit that he wrote himself. Or even better the same prosecutor explaining to a defense attorney how to beat a case that was taken away from him and given to another prosecutor that he despises.

We need to fight this bullshit and preserve our rights to be able to record these proceedings so people who can't give up their valuble time to attend can see what's going on.

Miguel M. de la O said...

Here is the text of the proposed rule: Proposed rules dealing with the use of electronic devices in court.

The proposed rule bars jurors from using any electronic device during deliberations, and gives the Judge the power to confiscate such devices at any time during the juror's service.

The rule gives the presiding Judge the power to confiscate electronic devices within the Judge's courtroom. However, "professional journalists" are excluded from the reach of this rule. A "professional journalist" is defined here: 90.5015. Although this rule could be abused to impede a blogger's ability to record court proceedings, if applied correctly it appears to fit comfortably within the precedents of both the Florida and US Supreme Courts regarding "cameras in the courtroom."

Perhaps the definition of journalists needs revisiting in the light of the media's decline and the rise of the citizen journalist. "Eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty."

South Florida Lawyers said...

As usual Miguel sheds light with facts and reason.

Personally, I can't think of a reason to allow "professional journalists" to record public testimony but not other members of the gallery, for whatever reason they wish.

(Obviously if it is abusive or disruptive the Judge has discretion over that).

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kain has it right. How do you define traditional media? You cannot, in my humble (non lawyered opinion). This conjures up a host of concerns that involve our basic freedoms.

Well said, Citizen K.

Anommie said...

Bloggers and voters freedoms under attack in Surfside Florida:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/16/2169609/pseudo-journalists-blog-without.html

http://whocontrolssurfsideflorida.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/Longtimeresident?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/0/x7dPth4irQc

http://www.savesurfside.com