Manning Judge Rules Against Reader Supported News, Media Access

FORT MEADE, Md., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Judge in the Bradley Manning court-martial trial has ruled against RSN in its motion to intervene for media access. RSN attorney Bill Simpich weighs in:

Reader Supported News has been targeted by the US Army and denied media credentials to report at the Bradley Manning trial. We filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings, seeking not only our credentials but also the right for the media to receive the audio and video feeds on a real-time basis.

We also moved for the media to be able to fully utilize laptops at the designated media center a half mile from the courtroom while watching the video feed. Minutes matter when trying to get out a story. Laptops are the pens and pencils of the journalist's trade. Even though this center has been sparsely attended since the first day of trial, RSN is still not permitted to enter.

On the first day of trial, the judge Colonel Denise Lind took our motion under advisement. She denied our motion on Monday, June 10, stating that we do not have standing to bring a motion to intervene. RSN intends to seek relief in federal district court.

Judge Lind is a national expert on the subject of media access to military court proceedings. She wrote an erudite law review article on this subject back in 2000, where she stated that "the media has standing to challenge denial of access".

At the hearing, the prosecution stated that Reader Supported News was denied media credentials because we were not in the Vocus database, and that was in the press advisory. The prosecutor got it wrong - as can be seen, the PR media monitoring database Vocus is not mentioned in the press advisory. How could Vocus fail to pick up RSN in their surveillance sweep?

Vocus monitors over 130,000 media outlets, including online news sources, print publications, blogs, and broadcast media. Public relations professionals report that Vocus is used by public relations firms much like Westlaw or Lexis is used by attorneys.  Vocus provides communications command and control for talking with reporters. Vocus can tell its customers whether the media outlets are "positive or neutral".

Contact: Bill Simpich, [email protected], (415) 542-6809

SOURCE Reader Supported News