First off I would like to apologize that it has been so long since I last blogged but I have been working on my Media Studies Capstone and a few other projects that have kept me busy but a couple of media law related issues have been in the news recently that I thought are worth talking about.

The first took place in the Cincinnati area the Cheryl McCafferty murder trial. Last week a jury found her guilty of killing her husband. The issue this case brought up was how much a judge can limit the media's access to trials. Local media had planned on live blogging about the trial and taking video; however, right before the trial began the judge banned live blogging, recording devices, and camera's from the court room. A pen and paper were the only things that could be used to record the trial. The ability to allow camera's in court rooms is decided on a state by state level. Illinois, for example, does not allow camera's in court rooms reporters are left to use pen and paper and rely on court room sketches to tell their stories. Does the public need to know what is going on in court rooms across America or should some information not be available to the public every minute of a trial. Should court rooms of America adapt to new technology and the new demands of the public or does media need to be restricted in order to protect the legal system?

The second issues is that there has been a small victory for reporter's privilege. Reporter's privilege is a legal term that protects members of the media from being forced by the courts to give up their sources or be held in contempt. There is big push for reporter's privilege on the federal level. CBS News does not have to hand over the unaired footage of a 60 Minutes interview with a Marine who is being investigated for deaths that occurred in 2005 in Haditha, Iraq. Prosecutors argued that First Amendment protection does not apply to military courts; however, Lt. Col. Jeffery Meeks does apply to court martial proceedings.

I write about these two issues as a reporter because these issues will only become more talked about and debated in the future. As technology expands journalists will want to bring more into court rooms but is this necessary? Prosecutors and lawyers will want to continue to go after and force reporters to hand over their sources, making the work easier on them, but shouldn't sources be protected so the media can still report on important stories and find out information that will benefit the public they serve? Conversations about this should be taking place in newsrooms and classrooms around the country good topic for a communication law or ethics class.