Media requests that Gag order on the Jena Six case be lifted

Although the Jena Six case is not in itself a journalistic issue, but the request of the media to lift the gag order on the court records in the case is an issue that involves journalism. In his article in the Shreveport Times, entitled "Media Seeking to Lift Gag Order, Unseal Court Records in Jena Six Case," affiliate Bill Sumrall he discusses the push from the media to lift the gag order and steps that have been taken.

Papers were filed on Monday October 23, these papers support the unsealing of the court records that pertain to the Jena Six case. The Times and Ganett Louisiana newspapers as well as the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, ABC news, and CNN support a petition to lift the gag order. The memorandum cites a Louisiana law to back up the need for this order to be lifted.

"Court documents, filed Monday on behalf of the media in part say the closure order in the case unquestionably violates Article 879(B) of the Louisiana Children's Code, which provides: 'All proceedings in a juvenile delinquency case involving a crime of violence as defined in R.S. 14:2(B) of a delinquent act which is a second subsequent felony-grade adjudication shall be open to the public'"

The document also provides that all future court records pertaining to this case must be open to the public, to rectify the improper gag order put on the previous proceedings in this case. The document states that the gag order placed on this case is a violation the the first amendment right of the new media to report on the hearings, thereby making it unconstitutional.