first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2022-09-30 21:19:31.726113+00:00,2023-04-01 16:44:19.149201+00:00,Judge will review her order forcing Berkshire Eagle editor to turn over reporting notes,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/judge-will-review-her-order-forcing-berkshire-eagle-editor-to-turn-over-reporting-notes/,2023-04-01 16:44:19.037482+00:00,,"LegalOrder object (170), LegalOrder object (171), LegalOrder object (172)","(2022-10-03 19:04:00+00:00) Revising her own order, judge rules editor doesn’t have to turn over confidential reporting",Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,Larry Parnass (The Berkshire Eagle),,2022-03-10,False,Springfield,Massachusetts (MA),42.10148,-72.58981,"
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge said during a Sept. 22, 2022, hearing that she would reexamine her previous decision forcing a Berkshire Eagle editor to turnover his confidential reporting notes as part of a clergy abuse lawsuit.
According to the Eagle, Larry Parnass, managing editor for innovation at the Berkshire Eagle, published more than a dozen news stories since 2019 on sexual abuse allegation cover-ups involving the Springfield Diocese. As part of a lawsuit, the diocese subpoenaed Parnass this March, seeking his testimony and a broad array of reporting materials it said were needed to verify the consistency of claims made to investigators and a review board. Attorneys for the Eagle objected to the order, arguing that turning over the materials would compromise a confidential source.
Parnass and the Eagles’ attorney, Jeffrey Pyle, did not respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
In a ruling this summer, Judge Karin L. Goodwin upheld the subpoena but narrowed the scope to materials she believed did not include identifying information of confidential sources.
During the September 2022 hearing, Pyle argued the diocese’s requests for information did not overcome the First Amendment and was not significant enough to violate a reporter’s confidential relationship with a source, the Eagle reported.
“This story would never have been published by The Berkshire Eagle had not Mr. Parnass been able to ensure confidential sources of his promise not to reveal their identities, and in that respect, this case is much like many other cases that have involved award-winning, societally important journalism,” Pyle said during the hearing. “The stakes are very high here.”
Goodwin said she would reexamine her previous ruling allowing the subpoena to move forward in part. She did not say when she would release that decision.
Independent journalist James Croxton, managing editor of Oregon-based website DoubleSidedMedia, said his life was threatened as he covered an anti-vaccine rally in Springfield, Oregon, on June 23, 2021.
He said he was in the plaza in front of Springfield Library around 4 p.m. to cover the event, which was also advertised as a protest against mask-wearing to combat COVID-19, and against critical race theory. Croxton said there were around 40 protesters at the rally.
“Many of them held signs about keeping critical race theory out of schools and mask mandates,” he wrote in a post for Left Coast Right Watch, a California-based website.
Two men approached Croxton and asked him who he worked for. Croxton wrote in the post that when he replied ”‘Double Sided Media” they muttered “fake press.” He said he was later circled by two protesters, one carrying a large pole. He wrote that the one carrying the flagpole was “notorious” for beating people with it.
He added that a man walked toward him and told him it would be wise if he walked away.
“Knowing I was largely outnumbered and the only member of the press there by this point, I agreed and stated, ‘Sure, I’ll walk away. No problem’,” Croxton wrote.
Two of the men then followed Croxton down the road, he said, and one said: “If you ever come back, it’ll be the last thing you do.”
“I was physically scared for myself. I thought I was about to be ambushed as two grown men—one with a large flagpole as normal—circled me like predatory vultures,” Croxton tweeted after the incident.
“In retrospect, I think this was the most dangerous situation I have found myself in so far. I say this because I was entirely alone and with a bunch of people who still think that 'the press is the enemy of the people,'” Croxton wrote.
Croxton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had feared for his life.
“I felt scared due to the fact that I was all alone knowing that if anything happened, nobody was there to either document it or help me.”
He said he hadn’t filed a complaint to the police.