Wisconsin has become one of the first states to offer guidelines that judges can use to instruct jurors. I haven’t been able to find the guidelines online, but their announcement included another interesting tidbit.
The instruction does not, of course, help judges who are dealing with journalists and citizen bloggers in court. Live blogging during trials has raised concerns in Wisconsin and elsewhere. In mid January, a Florida judge ordered a Jacksonville newspaper reporter to stop blogging during a high-profile murder trial because the judge found the typing to be distracting the jury.
If trials are truly open to the public, what legitimate concern can their be for reporting on the judicial process?