http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43339,00.html Journalists Protest Gag Order By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 5:00 p.m. April 25, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation will represent a Seattle journalist collective that is the target of a police probe and court-imposed gag order. On Saturday evening, FBI agents visited the downtown offices of the Independent Media Center and handed the group a court order -- apparently related to the Quebec City trade summit -- that also instructed the media organization not to publish the contents of the order. That unusual event grabbed the attention of the civil liberties organization, which is stepping into the fray and hopes to persuade a federal judge to lift the gag order. Other groups also may be part of the legal team. "It is possible that the gag order may come off very soon," says Lee Tien, an EFF staff attorney. "I would be on the lookout." [...] "There are a few limited situations in which there are legal gag orders," says Doug Honig, public education director for the ACLU's Washington state chapter. He gave three examples: Testimony before a grand jury, a trial where the judge tells the attorneys not to give interviews, and an out-of-court settlement. "In this situation we don't understand why there was a gag order in the first place," Honig said. "It certainly shouldn't be the case that a government official would tell an organization that they can't talk about a situation.... Based on what we've heard so far, we don't know why there was a gag order." [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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