FREE PRESS VS. FAIR TRIAL

November 12, 1999
		A dispute between CBS News and a Texas prosecutor ended this week when CBS handed over the transcript of an interview with dragging death defendant Shawn Berry -- after publishing it on the Internet. After this background report, media correspondent Terence Smith talks with the prosecutor and a first amendment lawyer representing CBS. The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Nov. 12, 1999: A discussion of the Berry interview case. Sept. 30, 1999: National security or free press? The use of satellite images May 21, 1999: Former New York Times editor Max Frankel talks about journalism today Jan. 13, 1999: A look at the growth of network news magazines Nov. 24, 1998: "60 Minutes" broadcasts a physician-assisted suicide March 3, 1997: Press coverage complicates an Oklahoma City bombing trial Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media.     CBS News The Texas Judicial System	DAN RATHER: After a series of demands and threats of jail time backed by the state judge, one federal and several local prosecutors got what they wanted from CBS. TERENCE SMITH: What Texas prosecutors wanted was the entire text of an interview that anchorman Dan Rather had conducted with Shawn Allen Berry, a third defendant in the dragging death trial of James Bird, Jr. The other two defendants were found guilty of capital murder and have been sentenced to death. Prosecutors got the unedited transcript but so did the public. CBS News posted the full transcript on its Web site. First Amendment Lawyer Bruce Sanford. BRUCE SANFORD: CBS reached the end of the line in this case in Texas, and they made a decision to respect the law, rulings as they came down to release the transcript on the Internet, a very clever use of the Internet, to make public, essentially, what the prosecutors had been asking for. And so all of us can decide whether the prosecutors really had much of an argument here. TERENCE SMITH: Prosecutors argued that in the edited interview, aired on "60 Minutes II" on September 28, Berry contradicted statements he had given earlier to police. They needed the entire transcript, they said, to check for further inconsistencies. Nonetheless, CBS refused.
	Prosecutor: no exceptions for the press
	GUY JAMES GRAY: What really bothers me is that it's not right, by God, it's not right. Any corporation, any private individual, any officer, anybody else would be required to turn over an interview with a defendant. It's not right for them to keep that interview and not turn it over to this jury. TERENCE SMITH: Prosecutors worked through two states to get tapes and transcripts. In Texas they subpoenaed the entire interview from Dallas-based CBS producer Mary Mapes, threatening her with jail if she didn't turn over the material. In New York, Dan Rather was subpoenaed to turn over the tapes and testify in Shawn Berry's trial. Rather had this to say on his day in court. DAN RATHER: I believe in the rule of law deeply and completely. And that's the reason we're here today, because an important principle is involved, and it's the principle of the public's right--not the press--but the public's right to have a free and independent press.
	Texas lacks shield laws
	TERENCE SMITH: In order to foster a free and independent press, 31 states have set up protections for journalists called shield laws. They protect journalists from having to disclose confidential sources or having to hand over unpublished or unaired information when there is no compelling reason for the courts to have it. Texas does not have a shield law. Attorney Sanford says journalists aren't seeking to be above the law, just independent of the law. BRUCE SANFORD: They don't take pictures or gather information and then trade it with the police or trade it with prosecutors. They don't do things like that, because, if they did, they would never get the interviews from whistle blowers, from watchdogs on government, from people who want to share information with them but that are terribly afraid of retribution by the government. TERENCE SMITH: After CBS gave in and turned over the transcript Wednesday, all the subpoenas were dropped.

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