- HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- At
the request of CNN, a federal judge in Texas Friday night blocked emergency
officials in New Orleans from preventing the media from covering the recovery
of bodies from Hurricane Katrina.
-
- Attorneys for the network argued that the ban was an
unconstitutional prior restraint on news gathering.
-
- U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary
restraining order against a "zero access" policy announced earlier
Friday by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief
effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.
-
- A hearing was scheduled for Saturday morning to determine
if the order should be made permanent.
-
- In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think
that's proper" to let media view the bodies.
-
- In an e-mail to CNN staff, CNN News Group President Jim
Walton said the network filed the the lawsuit to "prohibit any agency
from restricting its ability to fully and fairly cover" the hurricane
victim recovery process.
-
- "As seen most recently from war zones in Afghanistan
and Iraq, from tsunami-ravaged South Asia and from Hurricane Katrina's
landfall along the Gulf," Walton wrote, "CNN has shown that it
is capable of balancing vigorous reporting with respect for private concerns."
-
- http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/10/katrina.media/index.html
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