Showing Lisa Nowak, the diaper-wearing astronaut, in her cell. It apparently shows her in a very confused, erratic state. I say apparently because, although I clicked on the link, I didn’t have the patience to watch very much of it. But my question is "is it legal to publish this, and on what basis? I’d think it would prejudice potential jurors, so isn’t it interefering with the legal case?
Related question: if a video or photo gets released to the public that legally shouldn’t, could a media outlet or other private third party that receives the video face any criminal charges for airing it? Does it matter if the subject of the video or photo is a minor?
I’m thinking no. Civil charges are of course another matter. I added the minor aspect since in Japan it is illegal to publish anything identifying a minor charged with a crime.
In general, yes. If information gets out into the public arena we in the media usually face little to no consequences for running it in print or broadcast. A judge can order media not to run it but that could face court challenges. The federal government can try to control such information on grounds of national security but it doesn’t always work.
Here’s the wiki entry on The Pentagon Papers, a case in which the federal government attempted to stop several papers from running with information obtained through a leak. While it wasn’t a decisively victory it set the bar high for government preventing such information from being presented in the media.
Meh. That’s so low. Must every aspect of her personal situation be put on public display? She deserves some dignity. Anyway, this is GQ so I’ll say no more.
My bad. I knew that something about the diaper was misrepresented in the initial accounts, but I thought referring to the diaper would jar people’s memories.
Beyond my initial question, does anybody have any idea what purpose the police would have for releasing the video? It seems planned to humiliate her. I don’t doubt she should be prosecuted for something, but she seems to be suffering on some level, and I’m not convinced justice is being served.