By Christopher B. Daly
As I recently argued, we the people deserve to have cameras in all our courtrooms (except maybe juvenile court) and our legislative bodies.
The latest case in point: the appearance in U.S. District Court in Boston yesterday by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing case. Radiating out from downtown Boston, millions of people have a keen interest in this case, and they all have a right to see this defendant. We have a right to hear him say “Not guilty.” We have a right to observe the performance of the government parties — the prosecutors, the judge, the guards, etc. We have the right to watch our government.
Instead, what we get is a chalk sketch like this one:
Suspected terrorist
Margaret Small/AP
We can do better, and we the people deserve better.
If anybody knows of a good argument for continuing to ban cameras from federal courts, please leave a comment.
Filed under: Boston, broadcasting, journalism history, media, Photojournalism, Supreme Court Tagged: cameras in court, courtroom TV, Marathon bombing, television, Tsarnaev
