Pa. Supreme Court to allow cable TV cameras

HARRISBURG Lights. Camera. Oral arguments?

Indeed.

For this first time the Pennsylvania Supreme Court - the oldest sitting high court in the nation - is opening its courtrooms to cable television coverage.

After several tests over six month period, the seven-member court in June voted to allow the gavel-to-gavel coverage of arguments but did not announce the action publicly until Monday.

Just don't expect to watch a blow-by-blow airings of crime drama like the recent Casey Anthony murder trial in Florida.

Under an exclusive agreement with Pennsylvania Cable Network, which had petitioned the court to allow its cameras in since 2006, the arguments will be taped for broadcast later.

"We felt it was a good educational tool to teach citizens what the third branch of government does," said Chief Justice Ron Castille in an interview Monday. "The theory is that people want transparency and this will help show people who we are and what we do."

The Supreme Court - formed by William Penn in 1684 - makes its symbolic TV debut Sept. 13 at a historic venue: Old City Hall in Independence National Historic Park, where the court met until moving to its new courtroom in 1882 in the new City Hall at Broad and Market Streets.

Castille said some justices remain concerned about the airing of sensitive cases such as those involving children and wanted to exert some modicum of control in those matters.

But he added, the taped broadcasts are a "first step" and that live broadcasts might come in the future.

He said there had been resistance by some justices to cameras in the courtrooms in the past, but that turnover in the high court has brought in a new generation of justices more open to "modern communications."

Matthew J. Crème Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association said he was pleased with the decision.

"This is something we at the PBA advocated for some time," said Crème. "We see it as an educational tool. Any opportunity for the public to see the justice system in operation helps build confidence in the system."

Castille said the courtroom antics that played out before international TV audiences in 1995 during the O.J. Simpson trial help set back any decision to allow cameras here.

The latest decision comes more than a decade after the high court gave the go-ahead for the first cameras in Pennsylvania courtroom.

In 1999 it voted to allow PCN to broadcast Superior Court proceedings and in 2006 cleared the way for broadcasts of Commonwealth Court proceedings.

Cameras are not permitted in Pennsylvania's Common Pleas courts.

Virtually all other states allow electronic media into appellate courtrooms under certain conditions, for instance that the media presence not cause a disruption.

"Pennsylvania is one of the last," said Brian Lockman, president of Pennsylvania Cable Network and one of the original employees of C-SPAN, founded in 1979. "You'd think after 300 years they'd need to think about it a little, but I give credit to the chief justice for this."

A death-penalty case tops the docket when the high court reconvenes next month and viewers can tune in for the legislative redistricting battles likely to take place next year.

Lockman said, barring any news conflicts, PCN will cover all proceedings in the court's Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia courtrooms.

Neither PCN nor the state is paying the other for the broadcast rights, a court spokeswoman said.