Freedom Of The Press

Media law experts and journalism groups expressed outrage Thursday that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies obtained phone records from a notable Hollywood gossip journalist during a leak investigation, calling the action a serious violation of the reporter's rights. Several said they believed that sheriff's investigators violated state and federal law when they obtained a search warrant for the records of TMZ founder Harvey Levin as they tried to identify who gave him details about Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade during a 2006 drunk-driving arrest.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's request to file a secret motion to move his corruption trial out of Southern California violates the 1st Amendment's free-press protection, a media attorney argued Thursday. Carona's attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford to keep their motion to move the trial sealed because releasing it would create additional inflammatory publicity about the case.

Spacious and airy, the newsroom of the National seems a newfangled journalistic field of dreams, with its stylish furniture, flat-panel monitors and roomy, uncluttered desks. Though the new United Arab Emirates newspaper has a daily circulation of only 70,000 to 90,000, it has grand ambitions and leaders who are bullish on print journalism. "Don't panic!" editor Martin Newland advises his counterparts in the West. "Don't head to the hills yet.

The Ventura County Star was rebuffed Thursday in its efforts to quickly overturn a judge's order to withhold publication of a story that details the slashing death of a 6-year-old boy last year. Legal experts and the newspaper's editor said the ruling earlier this week by Superior Court Judge Ken Riley is a clear violation of 1st Amendment protections. But Riley, who was out of town, declined to hold an immediate hearing and set one for Monday.

Yes, we reporters might get stuck covering the late shift or -- egad! -- a parade. When disaster strikes or a source calls back on deadline, the nights can be long. Newspaper layoffs and hard economic times can cast a pall over just about everything we do. But those concerns seem a piffle every time I read dispatches from around the world about journalists who, fighting for the story, also must fight for their lives.

The editor of Playboy Indonesia was cleared Thursday of charges that he published indecent material, but opponents said they would continue their campaign against the magazine in court. The publication, which does not contain nude pictures, "could not be categorized as pornography," ruled presiding District Court Judge Efran Basyuning. Its editor, Erwin Arnada, also is protected by press freedom laws enacted after the 1998 resignation of dictator Suharto, the court decided.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the withdrawal of a complaint initiated against about 200 journalists who had defied a ban on rallies to protest curbs on the media, the government said. Although no journalists have been arrested for rallying in Islamabad, the capital, the government has come under sharp criticism for what appears to be a crackdown on press freedoms.

Setting up a potential confrontation with the Bush administration over press freedoms, the House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to extend new protections to journalists and their confidential sources. The so-called shield law would for the first time establish standards that limit the power of federal authorities to compel reporters to testify or to disclose documents and unidentified sources they have used in their reporting.

With a presidential election scheduled for March, the Zimbabwean government Monday announced changes to security and media laws that it has used in the past to suppress demonstrations and close independent newspapers. Analysts quickly countered that the measures would not ensure a free and fair vote unless the election was delayed in order for newspapers to reopen and for the other reforms to have an effect.

Scrambling to defuse a 1st Amendment issue, the Securities and Exchange Commission instructed its staff Thursday to prepare guidelines for demanding information from journalists whose work may be of interest to investigators. The commission move came less than a week after disclosures that the SEC had issued a subpoena to two writers for Dow Jones & Co. online publications -- a move by agency enforcers that caught Chairman Christopher Cox off guard.