HOUSE OKS CAMERAS IN COURT STATE HIGH COURT CRITICAL OF PROGRAM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 19, 1992                   TAG: 9202190199
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
HOUSE OKS CAMERAS IN COURT STATE HIGH COURT CRITICAL OF PROGRAM
Quicker than a photographer can aim, focus and shoot, the House of Delegates on Tuesday passed a bill to permit television and still-news cameras in courtrooms statewide.
With no debate, the delegates voted 84-13 for the bill expanding and making permanent a pilot project that had been used in six courts over the past five years. Forty-four states permit at least some photo coverage of trials and appeals.
Del. James F. Almand, D-Arlington, said the same stringent controls used in the pilot project would be in place in the statewide program. He said the trial judge will control how cameras are used.
Passage came over the objections of the Virginia Supreme Court, which had issued a report critical of courtroom camera coverage and said most judges and lawyers oppose it. Though the pilot program was hotly debated when it was instituted and then extended two years ago, the bill encountered no organized opposition this year.
The bill, which the Senate already had passed 35-3, was amended slightly in the House and must go back to the Senate for a second look before being submitted to Gov. Douglas Wilder for his signature.
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by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB