Listening to NPR last weekend, I heard an interesting story about journalists trying to cover war crime trials. Journalists were trying to cover the trials, but information wasn’t being made available to them in the same fashion it would be if it were a civil trial. For example, instead of documents being read aloud and made available to journalists, lawyers would ask a witness “Can you verify that the statement on page 23 paragraph 5 is your swore testimony?” When journalists pressed for information they were told to go through the Freedom of Information Act.

I asked a colleague of mine, former lawyer and current adjunct here at Medaille, Tracy Kacher, for her thoughts. Kacher agree with the lawyer interviewed for the story: that it is going to take a lawsuit for the military to change their ways, and she clearly stated, “Journalist should not have to request info through Freedom of Information Act.”

Future and current journalists, what are your thoughts? Listen to the story, (it’s brief), and comment on how the situation should be handled.
–Sarah Whitehead