Court denies media access to Utah mine tragedy probe

12 October, 2007:

A federal judge of the United States has barred news media from access to the government’s investigation into the deadly mining disaster at Utah.

Rejecting the media’s plea to allow them to cover the investigation proceedings, US District Judge Dee Benson said the Constitution does not give reporters the right to watch interviews or get other access to an active investigation.

Judge Dee Benson added, “While it may be true that requiring all government investigations to be open would result in greater accountability and more accurate information, if such a requirement is to be imposed, it must come from a statute that is debated and passed by Congress and signed into law.”

The media bodies which moved the court for permission to cover the investigation included the Associated Press, The Salt Lake Tribune, CNN, the Desert Morning News, as well as the Utah Media Coalition, an association of newspapers, TV stations, and professional journalism organizations.

The plaintiff companies cited a 1985 case that found the Press had such a right to attend proceedings being held to investigate a similar mine disaster in Utah in 1984.

Six miners are presumed dead after the Crandall Canyon mine in central Utah caved in on August 6, 2007. The bodies of the miners have not yet been recovered.

Ten days after the mine collapse, three people, including a mine inspector, trying to tunnel toward the miners, were killed in a second collapse.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.

A spokesman for the Labour Department, parent agency of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said “the court ruling allows the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s law-enforcement investigation to continue without media interference that could deprive the public and the victims’ families of a full accounting of what happened at Crandall Canyon.”

Information gathered by the Mine Safety and Health Administration will eventually be released unless deemed confidential, he added.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration had started the proceedings behind closed doors in mid-September 2007 to investigate the mine accident.

The media companies had also requested the court that transcripts of all interviews conducted since the start of the proceedings be made available to them.

An attorney for the media companies said his clients were still considering whether to appeal the District Court’s ruling. He said the most recent mine tragedy in Utah showed that the Mine Safety and Health Act needs to be amended.