Re-Imagining the Reporters Workshop in Response to the Pandemic

Recognizing the importance of playing a proactive role in deepening reporters’ understanding of the courts system, the supreme court has hosted a Reporters Workshop since 1989.  Sponsored by The Florida Bar Media and Communications Law Committee and subsidized by The Florida Bar Foundation, this annual event aims to help reporters better understand judicial processes and to make covering court events easier and more accessible.  The sessions—which are conducted by judges, attorneys, subject area experts, and veteran reporters—vary each year, but they often focus on topics such as effective techniques for reporting high-profile cases, merit retention in Florida, public records and how to obtain the ones you need, libel law and defamation, lawyer regulation, and journalism in the world of social media. 

In the past, the workshops have been in-person, two-day events at the supreme court, with multiple sessions offered throughout.  However, after last year’s workshop had to be cancelled due to COVID-19—and with ongoing health concerns, uncertainty about the safety of travel and of gathering in groups, and pandemic restrictions—Media and Communications Law Committee members took a fresh approach for the 2021 program.  Held virtually, this year’s workshop will offer single sessions regularly throughout the year.  By eliminating the need for participants to travel and to make an extended time commitment, and by “opening the space” for a greater number of participants, organizers are making it possible for a broader group of reporters to attend sessions.

The first session this year, scheduled for the end of May, is called Covering Trials During a Pandemic.  Given the dramatic changes to court procedures, protocols, and rules wrought by the pandemic—and the resulting adjustments that judges, lawyers, court personnel, parties, and the media have had to make—this session will address what reporters should know about covering court events, particularly remote proceedings, to best inform their readers and viewers about the administration of justice in Florida during this extraordinary time.  The session will also focus on the ways in which media coverage will be affected by the pandemic-engendered delay in criminal and jury trials.  Panelists will include Florida court public information officers (Ms Sara Miles, Twentieth Circuit; Ms Eunice Sigler, Eleventh Circuit; and Ms Tricia Knox, deputy director of the Florida Supreme Court Public Information Office), a clerk of court (Ms Tara Green, Clay County, and president of the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers), lawyers, and reporters.  With jury trials around the state resuming with increasing frequency, organizers believe this topic will be of great use and interest to reporters.

This new model might, in fact, alter the way Reporters Workshops are conducted long after the dangers of COVID have passed.  Chief Justice Canady has frequently noted that the pandemic “will forever change the way Florida’s courts operate”—in particular, that much work will continue to be done remotely, significantly reducing the costs and burdens of litigation.  The pandemic has modified the ways in which education and trainings are likely to be conducted in the future, as well.  As Mr. Paul Flemming, public information officer with the Office of the State Courts Administrator and one of the workshop’s court liaisons, noted, “This presentation is a great chance to see if there are some new and different ways to approach the content while

protecting the underlying purpose.”

Ms Tricia Knox, deputy director, Public Information Office, Florida Supreme Court

The Honorable Tara S. Green, clerk of circuit court, Clay County, and president of the Florida Court Clerks and Comptrollers

Ms Sara Miles, public information officer, Twentieth Judicial Circuit, and president of the Florida Court Public Information Officers

Ms Eunice Sigler, director, Office of Government Liaison & Public Relations, Eleventh Judicial Circuit