Media Monitor: April 23

Media groups file “friend of court” brief in Free Press case: The Mankato Free Press earned the support of major press organizations as it fights a lawsuit leveled by Blue Earth County. The paper received a subpoena to reveal confidential notes of a phone conversation between reporter Dan Nienaber and the man at the center of a shootout with police in the town of Amboy in December. The paper refused to hand over notes, citing the state’s “shield” law which protects journalists from revealing unpublished information to law enforcement. The Star Tribune, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Minnesota Joint Media Committee, Minnesota Newspaper Association and Minnesota Broadcasters Association filed an amicus brief in support of the paper.

“To have a reporter’s privilege taken away in a case where there is no specific violation of the law being cited greatly weakens the ability of reporters to keep their unpublished information confidential,” said Star Tribune lawyer John Borger. Minnesota Monitor first mentioned the case here.

Judge rules in Strib theft case: In a 13-page decision rendered on Friday, Ramsey County District Judge David Higgs ordered Star Tribune publisher Par Ridder to turn over computers, hard drives and USB drives that may contain information on Ridder’s alleged theft of data from his old employer, the Pioneer Press. The decision also blocks PiPress exec Jennifer Parratt, who is accused of violating the non-compete clause in her contract, from starting work for Ridder at the Star Tribune.

Meanwhile, Tim McGuire, an editor at the Strib for 23 years and now chairman at University of Arizona’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, wrote a letter to the editor, urging Ridder and Strib interim publisher Fred Mott to rise above the “detestable muck” of such cross-river rivalry: “In a time when newspapers are under a dramatic market assault, both newspapers will be irreparably weakened by a long, public romp in the sewer of accusations and counter-accusations.”