Bill Text: NY A00712 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relates to audio-visual coverage of judicial proceedings; allows the judge or justice presiding over a proceeding to exercise discretion to prohibit or limit filming or photographing of particular participants; defines terms; provides limitations on audio-visual coverage.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 21-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-05-23 - print number 712b [A00712 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A00712-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         712--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 11, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  WEPRIN,  SOLAGES,  SEAWRIGHT,  CRUZ, PAULIN,
          BURDICK,   SEPTIMO,   HEVESI,   SIMON,   AUBRY,   SILLITTI,    SIMONE,
          BICHOTTE HERMELYN,  DICKENS,  SHIMSKY, GUNTHER, GLICK, TAPIA, WALLACE,
          COOK, McMAHON, DAVILA -- read once and referred to  the  Committee  on
          Judiciary  --  recommitted to the Committee on Judiciary in accordance
          with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee  discharged,  bill  amended,
          ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee

        AN  ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to audio-visual coverage
          of judicial proceedings; and to repeal section 218  of  the  judiciary
          law and section 52 of the civil rights law relating thereto

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 218 of the judiciary law  is  REPEALED  and  a  new
     2  section 218 is added to read as follows:
     3    §  218.  Audio-visual  coverage  of judicial proceedings. 1.  Authori-
     4  zation. Subject to the authority of the judge or justice presiding  over
     5  the  proceeding  to  exercise  sound  discretion  to prohibit filming or
     6  photographing of particular  participants  in  judicial  proceedings  to
     7  ensure  safety  and the fair administration of justice, audio-visual and
     8  still photography coverage of public judicial proceedings in the  appel-
     9  late  and trial courts of this state shall be allowed in accordance with
    10  this section.
    11    2. Equipment and personnel. The following shall be  permitted  in  any
    12  trial or appellate court proceeding:
    13    (a)  At least two compact video cameras, each operated by no more than
    14  one camera person. Additional permitted cameras shall be within the sole
    15  discretion and authority of the judge  or  justice  presiding  over  the
    16  proceeding.
    17    (b)  At  least  one  still photographer, using not more than two still
    18  cameras.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01599-04-4
        A. 712--A                           2

     1    (c) At least one audio system for radio  broadcast  purposes.    Audio
     2  pickup  for  all  media  purposes  shall  be  provided by existing audio
     3  systems present in the  courtroom.  If  no  technically  suitable  audio
     4  system exists in the courtroom, microphones and related wiring essential
     5  for  media  purposes  shall be permissible provided they are unobtrusive
     6  and shall be located in places designated in advance of  any  proceeding
     7  by the judge or justice presiding over the proceeding.
     8    (d)  Additional  permitted  equipment or personnel shall be within the
     9  sole discretion and authority of the judge or justice presiding over the
    10  proceeding.
    11    (e) Any pooling arrangements among members  of  the  media  concerning
    12  equipment and personnel shall be the sole responsibility of such members
    13  without  calling upon the judge or justice presiding over the proceeding
    14  to mediate any dispute as to the  appropriate  media  representative  or
    15  equipment authorized to cover a particular proceeding. In the absence of
    16  advance  media  agreement  concerning  disputed  equipment  or personnel
    17  issues, the judge or justice presiding over the proceeding  may  exclude
    18  all contesting media personnel from a proceeding.
    19    3.  Sound  and  light  criteria.  Video and audio equipment, including
    20  still camera equipment, whether film or digital, shall not be  permitted
    21  if  it  produces  disorienting  sound  or  light. No artificial lighting
    22  device of any kind shall be used in connection with the video  equipment
    23  or still camera.
    24    4.  Location  of equipment personnel. Video camera equipment and still
    25  camera photographers shall be positioned in such location  or  locations
    26  in  the  courtroom  as  shall  be designated by the chief administrative
    27  judge of the court or the chief  administrative  judge's  designee.  The
    28  area  designated  shall  provide  reasonable  access  to coverage of the
    29  proceedings. Still camera photographers shall assume  a  fixed  position
    30  within  the  designated area and shall not be permitted to move about to
    31  obtain photographs of court proceedings. Media representatives shall not
    32  move about the court facility while  proceedings  are  in  session,  and
    33  microphones  or  taping equipment shall not be moved during the pendency
    34  of the proceeding.
    35    5. Equipment movement during proceedings. News media  photographic  or
    36  audio equipment shall not be placed in or removed from the court facili-
    37  ty  except  before commencement or after adjournment of proceedings each
    38  day, or during a recess. Neither video cassettes or film  magazines  nor
    39  still camera film, digital media cards or lenses shall be changed within
    40  a courtroom except during a recess in the proceeding.
    41    6. Courtroom light sources. With the concurrence of the chief adminis-
    42  trative  judge  of the court, modifications and additions may be made in
    43  light sources existing in the courtroom, provided such modifications  or
    44  additions are installed and maintained without public expense.
    45    7.  Conferences  of  counsel. To protect the attorney-client privilege
    46  and the effective right to counsel, there shall be no  audio  pickup  or
    47  broadcast of conferences that occur in a courtroom between attorneys and
    48  their  clients,  between  co-counsel of a client, or between counsel and
    49  the presiding judge held at the bench.
    50    8. Impermissible use of media material.  Film,  digital  files,  vide-
    51  otape,  still  photographs,  or audio reproductions captured or recorded
    52  during or by virtue of coverage of a judicial proceeding  shall  not  be
    53  admissible  as  evidence in the proceeding out of which it arose, in any
    54  proceeding subsequent or collateral thereto, or upon retrial  or  appeal
    55  of such proceedings.
        A. 712--A                           3

     1    9.  Written order. (a) An order restricting audio-visual coverage with
     2  respect to a particular participant shall be in writing and be  included
     3  in  the  record  of such proceeding. The order must state good cause why
     4  such coverage will have a substantial effect upon the  individual  which
     5  would  be  qualitatively  different  from  the  effect on members of the
     6  public in general and that such effect will be  qualitatively  different
     7  from  coverage  by other types of media. Before prohibiting audio-visual
     8  coverage, the presiding judge must  first  consider  the  imposition  of
     9  special limitations, such as a delayed or modified still or audio-visual
    10  coverage of the proceedings.
    11    (b) A presumption of good cause shall exist with respect to the testi-
    12  mony of minors.
    13    10.  Closing the courtroom. No audio-visual coverage will be permitted
    14  during any period in which the  courtroom  is  lawfully  closed  to  the
    15  general public in accordance with the United States and New York Consti-
    16  tutions, New York law and court rules.
    17    11.  Appellate  review.  Interlocutory  review of an order restricting
    18  audio-visual coverage shall be expedited in accordance with the rules of
    19  the applicable appellate court.
    20    12. Regulations. The  provisions  of  this  act  shall  supersede  any
    21  provision to the contrary in Part 131 of the Rules of the Chief Adminis-
    22  trative  Judge,  22  NYCRR  Part  131, Part 29 of the Rules of the Chief
    23  Judge, 22 NYCRR Part 29, and any other court rule regarding audio-visual
    24  coverage of judicial proceedings.
    25    § 2. Section 52 of the civil rights law is REPEALED.
    26    § 3. Subdivision 5 of section 751 of the judiciary law,  as  added  by
    27  chapter 187 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:
    28    5. Where any member of the [news] media as [defined in subdivision two
    29  of] referenced in section two hundred eighteen of this chapter, willful-
    30  ly disobeys a lawful mandate of a court issued pursuant to such section,
    31  the punishment for each day that such contempt persists may be by a fine
    32  fixed  in  the  discretion of the court, but not to exceed five thousand
    33  dollars per day or imprisonment, not exceeding thirty days, in the  jail
    34  of  the  county where the court is sitting or both, in the discretion of
    35  the court. In fixing the amount of the fine, the  court  shall  consider
    36  all  the  facts  and  circumstances  directly  related  to the contempt,
    37  including, but not limited to: (i) the extent of the willful defiance of
    38  or resistance to the court's mandate, (ii) the amount of  gain  obtained
    39  by  the  willful  disobedience of the mandate, and (iii) the effect upon
    40  the public and the parties to the proceeding of  the  willful  disobedi-
    41  ence.
    42    §  4.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
    43  have become a law.