Criminal Justice: Trial by Newspaper

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All this stirred outgoing President Sam Ragan of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association to warn that "we are hearing again the ancient cry that the free press is the enemy of fair trial." Ragan, who is executive editor of the Raleigh, N.C., News and Observer-Times, invoked the free press as the last bulwark before "the Star Chamber and ultimately secret arrest and secret trial." The Jersey court had not suggested Star Chamber courtrooms with no press present, but other critics found cause to wonder if the ban might not tend to overprotect lazy, incompetent or corrupt public officials. At any rate, the court's ruling was bound to provoke thoughtful debate and quite possibly a constitutional test.