City of Dallas Seeks to Lock Discovery Channel Outside Its Jails

Posted by Eriq Gardner

Since when does the governing body of a city feel the need to assert their authority over what TV camera crews want to shoot?

Yesterday, the Dallas County Commissioners Court, the principal governing body of the city, filed a petition in Dallas district court asking it to overrule a local sheriff, who had granted permission to Discovery Channel to shoot a documentary in a local county jail. The petition says its concerns are the safety of the film crew, the privacy interests of the inmates and subsequent liability, and precedent.

Are these flimsy excuses enough for the court to issue an injunction preventing access to property of the people, by the people, for the people? Will the city get their form of prior restraint?

We'll have to await the resolution, but while there's no doubt that law enforcement authorities are blessed with the power sometimes to stop media access out of public safety concerns, it would seem a pretty egregious application of the First Amendment to allow a governing body to exercise the power of such restraint.