Latest news with #Reporters'CommitteeforFreedomofthePress
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
How Ryanair's case in US against Booking.com has upset tech providers and journalists
Online travel firm gets backing from lobby groups in legal dispute with airline When Ryanair launched an appeal against a decision by a US judge to quash a jury conviction against internet travel giant little did the airline realise it was about to open a can of worms. Three organisations that represent journalists and technology providers have rowed in behind backing the group in its legal dispute against the Irish airline. The Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press is arguing that a court ruling last year in Delaware 'would allow private parties to criminalise routine data journalism'.
Indianapolis Star
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana law creating 25-foot 'buffer zone' around police unconstitutional by federal court
A law requiring a 25-foot buffer zone between on-duty police officers and bystanders is "unconstitutionally vague," the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on Aug. 5. "The decision should throw cold water on enthusiasm for these new police bubble laws across the country," said Grayson Clary, a staff attorney at the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press. The 2023 buffer zone law has been challenged for potential violations of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and the press, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which requires due process and equal protection under the law. The Aug. 5 ruling was based solely on the latter. The court stated that the law is susceptible to discriminatory or arbitrary enforcement and would grant police discretion to make arbitrary arrests. Police could "subject any pedestrian to potential criminal liability by simply ordering them not to approach, even if the pedestrian is doing nothing more than taking a morning stroll or merely walking up to an officer to ask for directions," wrote Judge Doris Pryor, who was appointed to the Seventh Circuit court by then-President Joe Biden in 2022. Lawyers representing the state's case in favor of the statute conceded that officers could tell people to stop approaching for no reason, including a made-up reason or a "bad breakfast." That reasoning will not stand "no matter how bitter the coffee or soggy the scrambled eggs," Pryor wrote. The buffer zone law's enforcement had been on hold since September 2024 when a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit filed by a coalition of Indiana media organizations, including IndyStar, ruled that the law was too vague to be enforced fairly. Additional proceedings will take place to determine whether the law is permanently blocked for all Indiana residents or only the parties named in the lawsuit. A June 2025 U.S. Supreme Court ruling sharply limited federal courts' ability to issue injunctions that affect people other than the parties in a particular lawsuit. In practice, because the Seventh Circuit has already made clear that the law is unconstitutional on its face, it would be deeply challenging for the state to enforce it, Clary said. The law was established in April 2023 by House Bill 1186, which made it a Class C misdemeanor offense for anyone who comes within 25 feet of an on-duty officer after being asked to stop. In a separate ruling in May, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law, as written, does not violate the First Amendment. No decision was made as to whether the law would violate freedom of the press in practice. Media coalitions' cases challenging similar police buffer laws in Louisiana and Tennessee remain pending.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
IndyStar, other news outlets file First Amendment lawsuit seeking media access to executions
A federal lawsuit has been filed by several news outlets seeking access to executions in Indiana, one of only two states that bars journalists from attending. On May 5, 2025, five media outlets represented by the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a complaint in the Southern District of Indiana against the state's highest-ranking prison officials, who are charged with carrying out the media ban. The plaintiffs — the Associated Press, States Newsroom, Circle City Broadcasting, Tegna and Gannett, which owns IndyStar and several other Indiana publications — argue that excluding media from executions violates the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press, in turn limiting the public's ability to understand the proceedings. In nearly every other death-penalty state, media representatives can gather firsthand information and serve as "surrogates for the public." The complaint cites Associated Press reporters' eyewitness accounts of botched executions in Idaho and Alabama. "This coverage required reporter access to witness execution proceedings first-hand. A lack of access leaves the public with an incomplete understanding of the proceedings," the lawsuit reads. Wyoming, the only other state that prohibits media witnesses from executions, has not carried out the death penalty since 1992, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The lawsuit asks for the court to permit a media representative to attend executions. In December 2024, Indiana carried out its first execution in 15 years. Journalist Casey Smith of the Indiana Capital Chronicle was able to attend, but only because she was one of the five people invited by the condemned man, Joseph Corcoran. Even then, the lawsuit says, Smith and other witnesses had little visibility and had to rely on a prison official to report Corcoran's last words. The filing comes just about two weeks before the scheduled execution of Benjamin Ritchie, who was convicted of killing a Beech Grove police officer in 2002. Ritchie requested a stay of the execution so he could pursue more legal claims alleging prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective counsel and a suspected diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The Indiana Supreme Court rejected that bid last month in an evenly divided vote and was obligated to schedule a date for the execution. Ritchie is one of seven people currently on Indiana's death row. Three federal death row inmates remain at the maximum-security prison in Terre Haute. Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@ This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyStar, other media outlets sue for access to executions
Indianapolis Star
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
IndyStar, other news outlets file First Amendment lawsuit seeking media access to executions
A federal lawsuit has been filed by several news outlets seeking access to executions in Indiana, one of only two states that bars journalists from attending. On May 5, 2025, five media outlets represented by the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a complaint in the Southern District of Indiana against the state's highest-ranking prison officials, who are charged with carrying out the media ban. The plaintiffs — the Associated Press, States Newsroom, Circle City Broadcasting, Tegna and Gannett, which owns IndyStar and several other Indiana publications — argue that excluding media from executions violates the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press, in turn limiting the public's ability to understand the proceedings. In nearly every other death-penalty state, media representatives can gather firsthand information and serve as "surrogates for the public." The complaint cites Associated Press reporters' eyewitness accounts of botched executions in Idaho and Alabama. "This coverage required reporter access to witness execution proceedings first-hand. A lack of access leaves the public with an incomplete understanding of the proceedings," the lawsuit reads. Wyoming, the only other state that prohibits media witnesses from executions, has not carried out the death penalty since 1992, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The lawsuit asks for the court to permit a media representative to attend executions. In December 2024, Indiana carried out its first execution in 15 years. Journalist Casey Smith of the Indiana Capital Chronicle was able to attend, but only because she was one of the five people invited by the condemned man, Joseph Corcoran. Even then, the lawsuit says, Smith and other witnesses had little visibility and had to rely on a prison official to report Corcoran's last words. The filing comes just about two weeks before the scheduled execution of Benjamin Ritchie, who was convicted of killing a Beech Grove police officer in 2002. Ritchie requested a stay of the execution so he could pursue more legal claims alleging prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective counsel and a suspected diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The Indiana Supreme Court rejected that bid last month in an evenly divided vote and was obligated to schedule a date for the execution. Ritchie is one of seven people currently on Indiana's death row. Three federal death row inmates remain at the maximum-security prison in Terre Haute.
