FREE ESSAY ON GAG ORDER

GAG ORDER

Gag Order - A judge's order prohibiting the attorneys and the parties to a pending lawsuit
or criminal prosecution from talking to the media or the public about the case. The
supposed intent is to prevent prejudice due to pre-trial publicity which would influence
potential jurors. A gag order has the secondary purpose of preventing the lawyers from
trying the case in the press and on television, and thus creating a public mood (which
could get ugly) in favor of one party or the other. Based on the freedom of the press
provision of the First Amendment, the court cannot constitutionally restrict the media
from printing or broadcasting information about the case, so the only way is to put a gag
on the participants under the court's control. In Canada, however, the media can be
restricted, as in a famous case in which American newspapers were smuggled across the
border to report on a particularly lurid sex-murder case in which a second accused person
was yet to be tried. A gag order can also be made by an executive agency such as when
President George Bush issued a gag order which forbade federally funded health clinics
from giving out information about abortions, a gag order which President Bill Clinton
rescinded on his first day in office, January 22, 1993.
Shield Laws - Statutes enacted in some states which declare that communications between
news reporters and informants are confidential and privileged and thus cannot be
testified to in court. This is similar to the doctor-patient, lawyer-client or
priest-parishioner privilege. The concept is to allow a journalist to perform his/her
function of gathering news without being ordered to reveal his/her sources and notes of
conversations. In states which have no shield law, many judges have found reporters in
contempt of court (and given them jail terms) for refusing to name informants or reveal
information gathered on the promise of confidentiality.