“This ruling should raise alarms not just for advocates of press freedoms but for anyone concerned about the dangers of government overreach,” the NYT’s publisher said.
A state judge in New York has upheld a ruling preventing The New York Times from publishing documents that were exchanged between conservative organization Project Veritas and its lawyer, accepting the argument that the prominent newspaper had violated attorney-client privilege. New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles D. Wood in Westchester County made the ruling on Thursday, releasing it on Friday. Wood, who was elected to his position, ordered The New York Times to not publish any more of the confidential documents between Project Veritas and its attorney, while also requiring the publication to destroy digital copies and turn over any physical copies to the conservative group. Free speech advocates and the prominent New York newspaper decried the ruling, with the publication vowing to appeal. “This ruling should raise alarms not just for advocates of press freedoms but for anyone concerned about the dangers of government overreach into what the public can and cannot know,” The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said in a statement emailed to Newsweek. “In defiance of law settled in the Pentagon Papers case, this judge has barred The Times from publishing information about a prominent and influential organization that was obtained legally in the ordinary course of reporting,” Sulzberger added.
