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Student paper fined for not releasing photos

Article Abstract:

Multiple trial court and appellate court rulings in Minnesota v. Knutson considered whether the state had the right to request unpublished photographs of a crime from The Minnesota Daily and whether the reporter present at the scene could be compelled to testify. Some rulings by the various Minnesota courts upheld the qualified reporters' privilege regarding the photos. The reporter was ultimately required to testify. The newspaper was ordered to release the photos, was fined for being in contempt, and the fines ended when the jury found the felony assault defendant not guilty.

Minnesota, Student publications

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New trial ordered for man convicted in drive-by shooting of 16-year-old

Article Abstract:

A Texas court of Appeals ruled in Coleman v. State that a murder defendant's right to confront witnesses was denied by the trial court's order quashing a subpoena served on a Dallas newspaper. The newspaper had run a series of stories on gang violence, and the defense believed that the writers' notes would shed light on the defendant's state of mind. The trial court accepted the newspaper's arguments that the qualified reporter's privilege applied. The appellate court disagreed, and the conviction was reversed and remanded for a new trial.

Laws, regulations and rules, Texas, Manslaughter, Confrontation (Criminal law), Confrontation (Law)

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Newspaper's photos unique, must be disclosed

Article Abstract:

A federal district court in Wilson v. Amoco Corp ordered a newspaper to release unpublished photographs of groundwater pollution downstream from an Amoco oil refinery in response to a defendant's subpoena. The case was the first to consider whether a qualified reporter's privilege existed in Wyoming. Amoco alleged that the oil sheen appeared manufactured for the newspaper's photographs, which were used by the landowners as persuasive evidence in a preliminary injunction hearing.

United States

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