News Media Coalition Appeals Gag Orders in Blankenship Case

It was news when an underground explosion in West Virginia's Upper Big Branch killed 29 people in 2010. And it was news when the Mining Safety and Health Administration concluded in 2011 that the disaster was caused by flagrant safety violations. It was news when the mine's owner, Massey Energy, settled its corporate criminal liabilities with federal prosecutors for $209 million. And was news when a grand jury indicted former Massey CEO Don Blankenship for conspiracy to violate mine safety standards.

But a federal judge now wants to make that case a secret. U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger last year issued a gag order prohibiting anyone involved with the case from discussing it, and essentially sealing all court filings in the case. She said it was necessary to find a fair jury for Blankenship, who has gotten a lot of headlines over the years.

Several media outlets, including the Wall St. Journal, AP, NPR, and the Charleston Gazette, asked the judge to reverse that secrecy ruling. After she refused to reverse most of it, the outlets appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Now a coalition of many more media groups, led by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, have filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the secrecy ruling as unconstitutional.

• "Media Groups Appeal Gag and Sealing Orders in Blankenship Mining Case," Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 25, 2015, by Tom Isler.