Ed Moloney writes about the NBC attempt to pirate the Boston College oral history archive. It featured in The Broken Elbow on 21 May 2014.
For
understandable reasons the disclosure that two weeks ago NBC News wrote
to Judge William Young of the Federal District Court in Boston asking
him to hand over subpoenaed interviews has created some excitement and
comment elsewhere in the media.
But there is a
simple reality to this story which may make it less dramatic or
impactful than it appears at first glance. Judge Young cannot hand over
that which he does not have. When he selected the interviews that were
responsive to the subpoena the material was handed over to the
Department of Justice for safekeeping until the legal arguments were
ended. When that happened the PSNI sent over detectives to collect it
and transport it back to Belfast.
Judge Young no longer has the
material, nor does the DoJ or any government body. In that sense the NBC
bid is moot. Copies were returned to Boston College and if NBC is to
get its way then the interviews will have to be extracted from the
college. Now, that would be interesting to watch.
Legal sources
also tell me that on the grounds that this material is being used in
criminal proceedings in which, in some cases, charges have not even been
laid, it is highly unlikely that any court in the U.S. would agree to
make it available to the media.
An interesting development but it may be much ado about very little.
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Just heard on BBC NI that the PSNI are now going to go after all the tapes!!!!
ReplyDelete"PSNI calls on Boston College to hand over all Belfast Project tapes".
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the British government are determined to maximize the negative impact that the archive can give it by virtue of it's special relationship with the U.S. government and Boston College. MLAT and NBC have declared the Irish struggle for civil rights and freedom to be nothing more than criminal and terrorism in their legal drafts. The nature of the British government is obvious to anyone who has lived through its actions in Ireland, but one the other side of the pond, where is the outcry from liberals, academics, and Irish Americans. At least where is the outcry from those not vested in modern day colonialism.
Ex-IRA prisoner to sue Boston College over tape
ReplyDelete