Cable News Network (CNN) censorship controversy
The CNN censorship controversy revolves around the network's defiance of a U.S. district court order in 1990 regarding the broadcast of audio tapes containing conversations between imprisoned Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega and his attorney. The court had prohibited CNN from airing the tapes due to concerns over attorney-client privilege and the potential impact on Noriega's legal defense. Despite this order, CNN aired portions of the tapes, leading to legal repercussions. The court later found CNN guilty of criminal contempt for violating the order, resulting in an $85,000 fine and a public apology from the network, acknowledging its error in defying the court's directive. This incident sparked broader discussions about the boundaries of press freedom, government censorship, and the responsibilities of media outlets in the context of legal proceedings. The controversy highlights the tension between the rights of individuals involved in legal cases and the media's role in informing the public.
Cable News Network (CNN) censorship controversy
Founded: June 1, 1980
Type of organization: Television news broadcaster
Significance: Court orders preventing the publication of information by the media are a clear form of government censorship; CNN was the subject of such an order in 1990
Cable News Network, an around-the-clock news channel that came of age in the 1980’s, is now a worldwide source of news and information. In the 1990’s it was also the subject of a governmental prior restraint that set the stage for discussions about government censorship of the news-gathering process.
CNN obtained from an undisclosed source audio tape recordings of telephone conversations between imprisoned Panamanian leader General Manuel Noriega and his attorney while Noriega was waiting trial in Miami, Florida, on drug-trafficking charges. The U.S. government had allegedly recorded the conversations. CNN wanted to broadcast the recordings, but was ordered not to do so by a U.S. district court in Miami. Despite the court’s order, the network broadcast portions of the tapes on November 10, 1990. Meanwhile, it also filed an emergency motion asking the federal court to lift the ban on their broadcast.
The court was concerned about Noriega’s claim that the recorded conversations were cloaked in attorney-client privilege and thus not admissible in the criminal case being brought against him. The tapes might also divulge the defense’s strategy. In order to determine if the conversations were entitled to protection as privileged information, the court wanted to listen to them, but CNN refused to turn them over, arguing the court could obtain the tapes from the government itself.
CNN’s refusal to cooperate troubled the court. Saying that the news network had “shackled” it, the court also pointed out what it perceived as an irony: “While appealing to our nation’s judicial system for relief, CNN is at the same time defiant of that system’s reasonable directions.” CNN finally turned over the tapes on November 20, 1990, ten days after it had broadcast them. The court found only two of the tapes were protected by attorney-client privilege, and that the broadcast of those conversations did not jeopardize Noriega’s rights. The ban was then lifted.
Nearly four years later, however, the U.S. attorney charged CNN with criminal contempt for having willfully violated the court’s order not to broadcast the conversations. In the ensuing court proceedings, Judge William M. Hoeveler found the network guilty of contempt. The original order, according to the judge, was specific enough to let the network know what it could not broadcast. The judge pointed out that on the day that the order was issued, the network had aired a story that included its details. The fact that CNN aired the tapes on the advice of its own lawyers was not enough to defeat the requirement that the violation was willful.
The sentence for criminal contempt was an $85,000 fine and a public apology, which the network agreed to broadcast. Included in the statement of apology was an admission that “CNN realizes that it was in error in defying the order of the court and publishing the Noriega tape while appealing the court’s order.”