Saturday, July 24, 2004
Attorneys complain that celebrity trials are too closed
Some attorneys are charging that the US court system is shutting out the media in too many aspects of celebrity trials.
What isn't acknowledged in the article is that many of the restrictions by judges have been placed as a direct result of media coverage in either that specific criminal situation or in others. That isn't to say they're the right direction to take, but it does show some lack of honesty and integrity on the part of the press.
"The idea that you have justice and then you have celebrity justice is really offensive," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "Does the public understand what preferential treatment these people are receiving from the system?"
"If they decide celebrities are entitled to a different kind of justice," Dalglish said, "we have lost press oversight of the system. Without that, we will never know if the rich and famous are getting the same justice as the rest of us."
What isn't acknowledged in the article is that many of the restrictions by judges have been placed as a direct result of media coverage in either that specific criminal situation or in others. That isn't to say they're the right direction to take, but it does show some lack of honesty and integrity on the part of the press.
