News outlets fight to keep Massachusetts court records open

BOSTON (AP) -- Judges across Massachusetts are sealing court documents with increasing regularity, forcing news organizations and First Amendment groups into costly and time-consuming legal battles to ensure the basic workings of the judicial system remain public.

In the run up to Aaron Hernandez's ongoing murder trial in Fall River, for example, a judge sealed search warrants and hundreds of pages of related documents following the former New England Patriots star's 2013 arrest.

In Falmouth, similar documents were barred from release related to the Feb. 5 shooting of two Coast Guard officers and a local Bourne police officer by Coast Guardsman Adrian Loya.

In both cases, the defense lawyers argued that the release of information could harm their client's constitutional right to a fair trial. Judges eventually unsealed the records after news organizations challenged the rulings, but journalists say the documents should never have been secret in the first place.

"What we're talking about is some of the most basic public information that has been always presumed to be available and transparent," said Paul Pronovost, editor-in-chief of the Cape Cod Times, which prevailed in its challenge in the Loya case.

Advocates and news editors say it's not clear the extent of the problem or its causes.

Matthew Segal, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, suggests the tendency toward secrecy stems, in part, from post-9/11 concerns about national security and how that thinking now pervades all levels of government across the country.

But he also submits that it is driven by factors unique to Massachusetts: The state has one of the weakest public records laws in the nation, and some government agencies have a tendency not to honor even those low standards.

"There isn't exactly a cheerful willingness to do what the law requires," Segal says. "You have to fight for every inch. The culture here does not favor openness."

News editors and First Amendment advocates say the problem is not exclusive to high-profile cases.

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News outlets fight to keep Massachusetts court records open