Reporters face unusual limits at Padilla terror trial

Security officers might prevent reporters from asking questions of defense lawyers or federal prosecutors under certain circumstances.

from the May 14, 2007 edition

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I told him that I'd merely asked a question, but added that I'd never heard of a rule barring news reporters from asking questions, or even from conducting brief interviews in a courtroom at a public trial at a time when both the judge and jury were not in the courtroom.

Having covered scores of hearings and trials in the federal courts as a journalist, I am well acquainted with courtroom etiquette. But I have never heard of courtroom officials barring reporters from asking routine questions.

Neither has Associated Press correspondent Curt Anderson, who has covered the Padilla case closer than any other reporter. "I don't know of such a rule," he said in an e-mail. "I haven't had any problem talking with the various lawyers anywhere in the courthouse or outside, even in the courtroom itself during breaks."

Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald also says he is unaware of such a rule against journalist questions. "I would like to know what the ground rules are. It is going to come up," he says.

Unlike most trials in federal court, the Padilla trial poses extraordinary challenges to members of the media. It involves a large volume of classified information and a significant portion of the pretrial litigation has taken place in closed hearings that have excluded members of the public and press.

The secrecy is in complete accord with the Classified Information Procedures Act. But for journalists trying to get a handle on the likely turning points in a trial, it is a bit like painting a picture of an iceberg from a seat in an airplane. Most of the substance is hidden from view. That makes fulfilling the media's watchdog role problematic.

Judge Cooke has not issued a formal rule barring the press from asking questions, according to members of her staff. But, they say, she supports the unwritten rule being enforced by the court security officer.

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