New York Progress In Cameras In Court

 

BUFFALO, NY (June 19, 2006) – New York attorney and photojournalist Mickey H. Osterreicher reports today from Buffalo some progress on getting cameras in the courts in New York State after a judge, presiding in a high-profile murder case in Albany, NY, has decided that the state’s 54-year ban on cameras does not extend to still photography.

Orange County, NY, Judge Jeffrey G. Berry has granted a motion by the Albany Times Union to photograph the entire Peter Porco murder trial, subject to some restrictions (which will be determined later). CBS had also filed a motion in the murder trial to provide audio-visual coverage of the closing arguments.

New York’s Civil Rights Law Section 52 has been used to prohibit still photography in trials in New York courts, but Berry’s ruling at the end of last week adds to several other recent rulings that indicate trial judges have discretion to permit still photography and audio-visual coverage of trial proceedings. Section 52 specifically bans “motion picture cameras” but does not mention still photography.

Osterreicher says that attorney Mike Grygiel, a member of the New York State Bar Association Media Law Committee who is a First Amendment lawyer representing the media, argued in the motion that Section 52 says nothing about still photography and that the “state’s silence on that question can hardly be viewed as a legislative oversight.”

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