Judge: Blogging from the Courtroom OK, Twitter Not So Much

As Bob Ambrogi reports, on February 19, 2013, Massachusetts Superior Court Justice Peter Lauriat held a hearing in the case of Commonwealth v. Fujita, a first-degree murder case going to trial in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The purpose of the hearing was to give representatives of the media an opportunity to voice their objections to Judge Lauriat’s limitations on reporting on the trial. The judge had previously approved a panoply of reporting and recording techniques in the courtroom itself, including a video feed, a still camera, blogging, and (in the judge’s words) the “pencil press.” However, he prohibited the use of Twitter or other social media “other than the blogosphere” to transmit live updates during the trial from the courtroom or anywhere else within the courthouse.

So, the natural question is, what’s the difference? What exactly is the “blogosphere” in Judge Lauriat’s mind, and why does he draw the line at Twitter and whatever other social media tools are not within that sphere?

The Court Rule at Issue

For context, it is necessary to take a closer look at Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Rule 1:19, the court rule that governs use of cameras and electronic devices in Massachusetts courtrooms. Section (2) of the rule states:

A judge shall permit photographing or electronic recording or transmitting of courtroom proceedings open to the public by the news media for news gathering purposes and dissemination of information to the public, subject to the limitations of this rule. Subject to the provisions of paragraph (d), the news media shall be permitted to possess and to operate in the courtroom all devices and equipment necessary to such activities. Such devices and equipment include, without limitation, still and video cameras, audio recording or transmitting devices, and portable computers or other electronic devices with communication capabilities.

Rule 1:19 was amended (effective September 17, 2012) to expand the definition of the news media to include private individuals who “regularly gather, prepare, photograph, record, write, edit, report or publish news or information about matters of public interest for dissemination to the public in any medium, whether print or electronic.” Critically, however, those individuals are still required to register as members of the “news media” with the courts to gain the benefits of the rule; it does not generally allow attendees to use electronic communication devices in the courtroom.

Is Twitter “Necessary” in Court?

During the course of the February 19 hearing, Judge Lauriat at first appeared to be questioning whether Twitter was in fact “necessary” to the function of gathering and disseminating information to the public. The judge had the following conversation with Christina Findikyan, counsel for WCVB, in response to her suggestion that Twitter was broadly accepted as a tool for dissemination of the news (full transcript available here):

THE COURT: … [W]hy don’t you give me some examples of the broad acceptance of Twitter in the courtroom either in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the country.

MS. FINDIKYAN: Well, right now in the United States District Court, in the district of Mass., they are allowing the use of Twitter in the [Whitey] Bulger trial. And our journalists at WCVB are in fact using Twitter as a mechanism for disseminating the news in that case.

THE COURT: And what is it that [is] disseminate[d] in what I understand to be a hundred and forty character maximum amount with Twitter?

MS. FINDIKYAN: Well, Your Honor, I believe that a good journalist, as I believe that our journalists are, [is] able to in that short amount of time get out the necessary information in short tweets.

THE COURT: Why don’t you read me an example of some information that a news media person would tweet to the world or at least to his or her followers, for example in the Bulger trial which you’ve indicated there is some tweeting allowed.

While WCVB’s attorney looked up examples in response to the judge’s request, Timothy Madden, counsel for CBS Radio and WBZ-AM, countered the suggestion that the 140-character limit was insufficient to provide accurate information about the trial in comparison to other media:

MR. MADDEN: …The issue that my client is concerned with, Your Hono