🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2mfcce$kr@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>, gld@bonjour.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare) writes:
> Most American sources, especially those of the tabloid variety
> who want to put themselves at the frontlines to battle fascist
> censorship (unless it's the busting of mainstream adult movies)
> on an otherwise slow week, would not have blinked twice were
> this a mere domestic gag order between counties of a state or
> between states.  There is no precedent for gag orders between
> countries ... and won't be short of negotiating treaties.  If
> they pulled the same stunt in America, people would be clearly
> going to jail for contempt of court.

Why?  The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down numerous court orders
that attempted to prevent the press from publishing such information.
Most recently in January 1994 when a company sued CBS tring to prevent
CBS News from airing a 48 Hours program.  The U.S. Supreme Court struck
down the lower court order in a matter of days.

In the U.S., courts can only issue gag orders on the parties in the
case.  And even then, the U.S. courts are rather limited in what they can
do if someone breaks the gag order.  Bail may be revoked for the
defendent, or the case may be dismissed.  Court officials can be fired,
and lawyers can be disbarred.  But the public, and the press can (and
often do) publish any facts they know or find out.  Those same tabloid
TV shows have covered a number of "juicy" court cases in the U.S., even
cases where the judge had issued a "gag" order on the participants in
the case.

Historically, the most famous was the Progressive case (the secret
of the atomic bomb) the judge issued a restraining order while the
case was decided.  A different newspaper went ahead and published
the "secret" information.  No one went to jail for contempt of court.

What I found especially amusing, was the claim by the Canadian Crown
prosecutor that the press had no standing to challenge the ban, but they
were still bound to obey it.  I found this a rather novel legal concept.
-- 
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
Domain: sean@dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100