Word: noriega
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...again, off-again saga of the Noriega tapes turned on again last week. Federal District Judge William Hoeveler lifted the ban he had imposed a month ago on CNN's airing of General Manuel Noriega's government-monitored phone conversations from prison. Reason: counsel for the ex-Panamanian dictator no longer objected to having them broadcast. After reviewing transcripts of the five tapes obtained by CNN, lawyer Frank Rubino concluded that the most damaging conversation had already been played on the air and that it "does no good to close the barn door after the horse is out." Yet Rubino...
Journalists and civil libertarians shuddered last week at a chilling decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. By a 7-to-2 vote, the Justices refused to rule on a Florida judge's order that temporarily bars Cable News Network from broadcasting government tapes of discussions between General Manuel Noriega and his defense team. U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler must now determine whether CNN's broadcast of the privileged conversations might jeopardize Noriega's right to a fair trial on drug-trafficking charges...
...easy to decide whose rights should come first in this situation, but because CNN's broadcast would almost certainly be the cause for a mistrial, Noriega's rights have to come first...
...staff doesn't have any problem letting the CNN tapes be the last straw that finally throws the Noriega case out of court. They say that it's the government's fault anyway and that justice would be served best if the government were forced to admit it. But for the staff to disregard Noriega's rights and wish the circumvention of the judicial process is irresponsible...
...justice system worth a little more respect than that? Shouldn't it be judges and not the media who decide Noriega's outcome...