Law Students

News Coverage And Law Enforcement

By Casebook Sherpa

NBC’s “To Catch A Predator” programs have been highly publicized for the men they catch trolling the Internet for sexual liaisons with young girls and boys. Cops, lawyers, clergy, excons. It seems they have unearthed - or at least shown to the public - a disturbing criminal underworld.

But can media coverage - or in Constitutional parlance, a journalist’s exercise of his First Amendment rights - ever hinder a criminal investigation. Certainly it can affect jury selection in high profile cases? And it can uncover criminal activity that the authorities have yet to discover (or have willfully ignored). But what about the investigation aspect? I suppose it could tip off criminals as to the strategy authorities are taking or force prosecutors to take on cases they would otherwise avoid.

The New York Times, in this article, suggests that the media can indeed hinder war crimes investigations. NBC (again) is investigating alleged war crimes by Leopold Munyakazi, a Rwandan native and currently a professor at Goucher College. The Rwandan government has requested his extradition to stand trial on charges of genocide. And he is on the record as denying that 1994 killings in Rwanda even constituted genocide.

The Department of Homeland Security - evidently having enough time on its hands since it’s letting property owners along our southern borders fend for themselves against heavily armed drug smugglers - is simply saying that NBC’s story on Munyakazi can hinder the investigation of such crimes. Similarly, Human Rights Watch has expressed its concern to NBC.

Munyakazi’s argument is that the Rawandan government is simply going after people who disagree with it politically, not perpetrators of or accessories to genocide.

I’m assuming that DHS’ stance is due in part to the fact that it’s evaluating how strong the Rwandan government’s case is.

I’m also assuming that Rwanda has reached out to NBC (a Rwandan official was with the NBC camera crew that went to Goucher) and is attempting to use the media to exert pressure on the U.S. government.

I think in writing I’ve basically answered my question. Ideally the media would consider the potential or likely consequences of its reporting. But it has every right to report on a story like this and, in fact, we rely on them to do so. That right is precisely the type of the thing the First Amendment protects.

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).