Phoenix Loses Case to Try and Get Station's Raw Reporting

It has long been held up in court, that Reporters are not required to give up their notes or raw video of stories that they covered.

But, that did not stop the City of Phoenix from wasting taxpayers money in an effort to get raw reporting from Scripps-own KNXV.

KNXV writes that it was an attempt that the news station’s attorneys and outside experts call a retaliatory and troubling attack on the First Amendment.

“They’re trying to go after the messenger instead of being concerned about the message,” said Dan Shelley, Executive Director of the Radio Television Digital News Association. “That rings all sorts of alarm bells. Every citizen in Phoenix should be alarmed this is going on.”

The station reports that federal Magistrate Judge Eileen Willett denied Phoenix’s bid to force ABC15 to turn over raw footage from a pair of interviews.

Outside attorneys hired by the city filed a motion to compel in early October after ABC15 objected to a subpoena earlier this year.

Phoenix wanted “full and complete, unedited copies” of ABC15's investigative interviews with Frances Salazar and her attorneys.

Other experts agreed and said they considered Phoenix’s attempt to obtain ABC15’s raw footage as a move to discourage people from speaking to the news station.

“It could have a chilling effect going forward on a journalist’s or news organization’s work,” said Kathryn Gardner, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.

She added, “People who come forward with important information that needs to be made public really rely on that confidential relationship with the media.”

The fact that the City of Pheonix would try to bypass the 1st amendment is a bit scary. The fact that they wasted taxpayers’ money in doing so, is not as surprising.

Shame on them.