Word: noriega
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Should the dispute over the tapes let Noriega off the hook, the government will have to shoulder the blame. The public will have to bear the burden of unanswered questions that a fair trial may have helped to answer. It was not CNN but federal officials who ordered the recording of the calls. They, and not the First Amendment nor the American public, should bear the consequences of that decision...
EARLIER this month, the Cable News Network (CNN) obtained recordings of conversations between deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega and attorneys defending him against drug trafficking charges. The original tapes were apparently made by federal officials, who routinely montitor the telephone calls of prison inmates...
...Noriega's lawyers were outraged by the breach of privacy and rushed to court, where Federal Judge William M. Hoeveler issued an order prohibiting CNN from broadcasting the tapes. The judge reasoned that public disclosure of Noriega's defense strategy might compromise his right to a fair trial...
...court's failure to strike down the ruling is not completely unprecedented. It has refused such emergency appeals in the past. But as Justice Marshall pointed out in his opinion, there is clear precedent in the Noriega case. And that precedent, from the 1976 ruling in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, supports...
...special leeway in those cases. The CNN dispute fits squarely into that mould. The power that the national media can wield may be frightening, but it is mild in comparison to the danger of placing editorial decisions in the hands of the judiciary. Moreover, given the questionable complicity between Noriega and the United States Government, we cannot allow that secrecy to continue...