| Last week, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Rochelle East granted SPJ NorCal, the First Amendment Coalition and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press’s motion to unseal as to all but one paragraph of an 11-page affidavit that San Francisco police submitted to obtain the first of five search warrants targeting freelance journalist Bryan Carmody. Judge East ordered that this material be unsealed by Tuesday, July 23 — the same day as SPJ NorCal’s Shield Law Panel at UC Berkeley (details below). She also granted Carmody’s motion to “quash” — or invalidate — the warrant. This is an important win for press freedom and government transparency, but our fight to learn how and why the Carmody raids happened is not over yet; we are continuing to advocate for access to materials that San Francisco police submitted to obtain the remaining four search warrants. |