UMaine Journalism Professor Picked for State Court Records Task Force
Contact: Shannon E. Martin, (207) 581-1281
George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — University of Maine Communication and Journalism Professor Shannon E. Martin has been selected by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to serve on the new Judicial Branch Task Force on Electronic Court Records Access.
The task force is charged with reviewing policies for public access to electronic court records and making recommendations to accommodate the news media and special interest advocacy groups, while providing for privacy concerns of people involved with court processes.
Though the news media, private investigators and special interest advocates are the most frequent users of court documents that are available to the public, the Maine court system administration wants to achieve greater public accessibility to court documents. The need for new policies and rules for accessing public records from home or office computers is a topic that all states are addressing, according to the state Supreme Court.
Task force members were selected for their broad and varied experiences with the legal system and electronic public records issues.
In addition to Martin, an authority, lecturer and published author on news media and communications policies and law, and freedom of information access issues, the task force includes representatives from state government, the Attorney General’s Office, prosecutor and defense attorney organizations, members of the news media, a children’s advocate, a private investigator, a Maine civil liberties attorney, domestic violence organizations, the Maine State Bar Association and law enforcement. Superior Court Justice Andrew M. Mead, in Bangor, serves as chairman.
After a year of study, the task force will recommend to the Supreme Court new rules, orders and policies to allow the broadest public access to court records, while balancing privacy and safety concerns.
Superior Court Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley says the court is pleased “by the willingness of these professionals to volunteer their time to assist the Judicial Branch in developing policies that will have the effect of allowing for broad public access to electronic court records while balancing the competing goals of public safety, personal privacy, and the integrity of the court system.”
Martin teaches courses at UMaine on journalism, First Amendment and mass communications law and policy, in addition to federal and state freedom of information legislation.
In 2001, she co-authored a paper on the subject, titled “State Laws Requiring World Wide Web Dissemination of Information: A Review of State Government Mandates for Documents Online,” published in “Information and Communication Technology Law” (VoL. 10, No. 2, 2001).
She frequently discusses media issues, including public information accessibility, with state and national news media, and was a training leader on the subject of Internet research in Bosnia for the International Research & Exchanges Board, an international nonprofit organization specializing in education, independent media, Internet development and civil society programs in the United States, Europe, Eurasia, Middle East and North Africa and Asia in May, 2000.
Her research interests include state and federal public information access and control policy issues, computer-assisted reporting, online and digital news, and information services development, policy and law.
She can be reached to discuss the implications and significance of the new task force at (207) 581-1281.