posted 04-09-2004 07:52 PM            

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040409/D81REHN00.html

Apr 9, 2:17 PM (ET)
By HOLBROOK MOHR

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The U.S. marshal on Friday defended the erasure of two journalists' recordings of a speech by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia but suggested that Scalia's request that his remarks not be recorded should have been publicly announced.

During Scalia's speech Wednesday in Hattiesburg about the Constitution, a woman who identified herself as Deputy Marshal Melanie Rube demanded that a reporter for The Associated Press erase a digital recording of the justice's comments.

The reporter, Denise Grones, initially resisted, but later showed the deputy how to erase the recording after the officer took the device from her. Rube also made a Hattiesburg American reporter erase her tape.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said Thursday that the deputy violated the law and "the fundamental tenets of press freedom."

But Rube's boss, Nehemiah Flowers, the U.S. marshal for the Southern District of Mississippi, defended the deputy's actions, saying Friday that one of the service's responsibilities is to provide a traveling Supreme Court justice with security.

"The justice informed us he did not want any recordings of his speech and remarks and when we discovered that one, or possibly two, reporters were in fact recording, she took action," Flowers told The Associated Press.

"Even with hindsight, I can't think of what other steps she could have done," Flowers said.

Scalia spoke Wednesday at Presbyterian Christian High School and at William Carey College. He did not warn the high school audience that recording devices would be forbidden, but issued a warning before the college speech.

Flowers said the fact no announcement was made at the high school regarding Scalia's wishes, "could have possibly been a faux pas on our behalf."

"It would have been handled, on hindsight, a little bit different," he said.

In a letter to Flowers and to U.S. Marshals Service Director Benigno G. Reyna and Attorney General John Ashcroft, the reporters group said the deputy violated the Privacy Protection Act. The act says government officers may not seize journalists' materials.

"It is clear that the statute's purpose is to provide maximum protection for the news media against seizures of work product," the group said in a letter signed by Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish and two other staffers.

Justice Department employees should receive approval from the attorney general before ordering a journalist to turn over work materials, the letter said. Because the marshal failed to do so, her actions should lead to a reprimand or other disciplinary action, according to the letter.

A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court said it is up to Scalia and his staff to set guidelines for coverage of his events. A spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Thursday.

At a reception following Scalia's speech at William Carey College, the justice told WDAM-TV reporters to leave. A member of his entourage also told newspaper photographers they could not take pictures, but a college official reversed the order after non-media guests started snapping photos.