From NPR.org:
Jason Beaubien reports that many states have cut back on the media’s access to correctional facilities — barring cameras and tape recorders, or restricting interviews with inmates. But some critics and legal experts argue that the media plays an important role in protecting against prison corruption and abuse. (4:30)
“There are well-established conditions for granting press interviews with prison inmates, such as the safety of staff and other inmates.” writes jjgiddes. “Now, state correctional facilities in the US are starting to place further restrictions on media access: prohibiting recording equipment other than pens and paper; denying interview requests outside of normal visiting hours. and demanding that they result in ‘a significant benefit to law enforcement agencies'; and setting additional conditions on which inmates can be interviewed, and when.
“In my mind, many of these restrictions count as fairly clear cases of prior restraint: not-so-rhetorical questions about prison abuses or the wrongly convicted rear their ugly heads. As mentioned in the report, the Society of Professional Journalists notes that nine states have restricted media access to prisons, up from five a year ago. All in all, it seems as if it’s been a very bad year for the Freedom of Information Act and the Eighth Amendment. What’s the point of even having a free press if it’s going to die a death by a thousand cuts?”