Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Wisconsin

Publishing daily arrests with name before charges are filed

Can a newspaper publish a daily list of arrests, names included, before charges are filed? If so, should it not be followed up on when charges are dismissed, dropped or otherwise? The police dept. faxes the daily arrests the following morning to the newspaper. They are mostly trivial to the public's interest other than gossip and truly do more harm to the individual. In the balancing test (Newspapers v. Breier & Kailin v. Rainwater) under open records, this doesn't seem proper. If it falls in open records, the newspaper should be required to request daily this info. What happened to due process and that no individual shall be denied the right to life, liberty and justice? This has caused harm to many in our community when accused by the public before the law. The side of the accused is not allowed to be told, also, with open records that individual should have a right to contest if I understand it properly.


Asked on 12/03/03, 12:46 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Regina Mullen Legal Data Services, PLC

Re: Publishing daily arrests with name before charges are filed

There is no law either preventing the newspaper from pulishing public information, or from doing it selectively. The freedom of the press IS in fact written into teh Constitution, and the government has no authority to tell a paper what it can and cannot publish. The information in this case is true, so neither is it libelous.

The power to change this sort of editorial policy is not in the law, but in the opinion of the people who buy the product. Vote with your Benjamins and write letters to the editor.

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Answered on 12/04/03, 5:32 pm


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