A front desk clerk at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility prevented a Citizens' Voice reporter from attending and witnessing a criminal arraignment at the facility Oct. 16.

Only after the reporter objected and requested the court proceeding be delayed until attorneys from The Citizens' Voice and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association could be heard from were the media permitted to attend.

The objection and the request were witnessed by reporters from WILK Radio and WBRE-TV 28.

"(The) openness of criminal trials is intended to serve the public and are protected not only by tradition, but by provisions in the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions," said CV attorney J. Timothy Hinton Jr. of the law firm Haggerty, McDonnell & O'Brien.

"Absolutely," Hinton said about the right for reporters and the public to witness court proceedings. "It's a constitutional right that all proceedings be open."

Hinton said there are circumstances regarding juvenile court proceedings open to the public.

"The public must be permitted to attend and witness these proceedings," said Attorney Teri Henning of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. "Pennsylvania courts have ruled that notice and an opportunity to object must be given prior to any closure (of court proceedings)."

The criminal arraignment was held at the facility for three LCCF prison guards and two inmates who were arrested and charged for their alleged role in a drug smuggling and bribery operation.

Their arraignment was held at LCCF at about 8 a.m. before on- duty District Justice Donald Whittaker of Nanticoke.

Arraignments are held at LCCF at 8 a.m. every day by the on-duty district justice for defendants who were arrested overnight.

LCCF began criminal arraignment proceedings at the facility in September 2002 to prevent police officers from being held up on transporting defendants to the on-duty district justice during the night.

In a similar issue related to media rights, the solicitor for the Lake-Lehman School District, Charles Coslett, refused to include a WBRE-TV 28 reporter in an office behind a closed door where he granted interviews to reporters from print, radio and another television station.

The incident took place Wednesday night following a school board public hearing that resolved a punishment for a Lake- Lehman football player accused of assaulting another player.

Coslett said that his reasoning to exclude the WBRE reporter was he did not appreciate an Oct. 9 segment that reported he was unavailable for comment because he was taking a "mental health day in a hot tub."

Coslett said the report "went beyond journalism standards."

"To report that I was in a hot tub, it's not news under anybody's standards," Coslett said.

"He never challenged the facts we reported," said WBRE managing editor Paul Stueber.

"What he did was wrong," said WBRE news director Al Zobel. "He may think he is hurting us, but he is hurting the people who pay his salary, the taxpayers."

Two First Amendment attorneys said Coslett's refusal to give an interview to WBRE is within his right, and he did not violate the Sunshine Act or the right to attend open hearings.

Coslett answered questions behind a closed door to news organizations he selectively invited in an office, after the public hearing ended.

Although Coslett as the school district's solicitor is a political appointee, he is not part of the political body that ultimately makes political decisions, the two attorneys said.

However, one attorney said an "equal protection" argument could be made when a political body or a political appointee treats people differently, as what appeared to have happened when Coslett refused to be interviewed by a WBRE-TV 28 reporter.

.