Related Industries

Media Law

Steptoe’s Media Law team counsels and represents international, national, and local publishers, broadcasters, online content providers, reporters, authors, businesses, and others in a variety of disputes involving how information is collected, disseminated, and used:

Defending clients against defamation, invasion of privacy, and related claims;
Prosecuting public records litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Arizona information-access laws;
Responding to civil, criminal, and grand-jury subpoenas seeking testimony from reporters; and
Reviewing content to minimize the likelihood of any successful defamation, privacy, or other action against the media company.

The Media Law team represents national, state, and local newspapers and magazine publishers, radio and television broadcasters, reporters, and other media interests in intellectual property matters and complex commercial disputes, including matters involving the sale of television and radio stations, noncompete agreements, changes in talent/personnel, advertising disputes, and agreements involving the development of television shows, books, and other media.

Representative Matters

Broadcasting
We have represented broadcasters on a wide range of regulatory and transactional matters:

Representing national and local television news programs in efforts to secure camera coverage of court proceedings and challenges to gag orders;
Defending a television station and its chief photojournalist against defamation allegations arising from a complaint alleging civil rights violations concerning the coverage of a bank robbery suspect’s arrest;
Challenging a protective order that shielded from public disclosure hundreds of pages of police records concerning an officer’s shooting of a mentally ill teenager, obtaining relief from the protective order and an award of attorneys’ fees on behalf of a major daily newspaper and one of its columnists;
Representing Arizona publishers and broadcasters in several matters involving access to court records and discovery in cases concerning allegations of priest pedophilia in the dioceses of Phoenix and Tucson;
Represented a major newspaper chain in the $28 million sale of several radio stations;
Represented a licensee of multiple radio stations in the expansion and later sale of FM radio stations; and
Negotiated the resolution of EEO complaints filed against an FM radio station.

Cable Television
We have represented cable television operators on local franchising and FCC regulatory matters:

Represented District Cablevision in the local franchising process leading to the receipt of its cable license for the District of Columbia;
Developed an innovative solution for a local telephone company to build broadband transport facilities for a cable company without violating the Modified Final Judgment or the FCC's rules on cross-ownership;
Defended a cable franchise approval against antitrust and other attacks by losing bidders;
Obtained FCC CARS licenses for a cable franchisee;
Negotiated pole attachment agreements with an electric utility and telephone companies on behalf of a cable company; and
Advised a Michigan city in negotiations over renewal of the local cable franchise.

Publishing
We have also represented national, state, and local newspaper and magazine publishers:

Prosecuting an action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on behalf of a major on-line legal publisher seeking redress for the copying of electronic content (2005);
Representing one of Japan’s largest newspapers in US district court in connection with a motion to quash discovery aimed at top corporate officials in Tokyo (2005);
Winning a unanimous Arizona Supreme Court decision ordering the dismissal, under the First Amendment, of an intentional infliction of emotional distress claim over a letter to the editor about the Iraq war (Citizen Publishing Co. v. Miller, 201 Ariz. 513, 115 P.3d 107 (2005));
Securing published decisions from the Eastern District of New York (and an unpublished affirmance from the Second Circuit) in a trademark action involving comparative advertising on the Internet (New Sensor Corp. v. CE Distribution LLC, 303 F. Supp. 2d 304 (E.D.N.Y. 2004), and 367 F. Supp. 2d 283 (E.D.N.Y. 2005) (awarding fees);
Represented a major national newspaper in the litigation of a defamation action brought in London by a Russian businessman and former public official; and
Quashed a subpoena served on a Phoenix broadcaster by county authorities investigating allegations of child pornography.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

Enforcing the First Amendment journalists’ privilege by securing a protective order against the disclosure of confidential journalistic information and winning attorneys’ fees and costs in the trial court and the Ninth Circuit after further litigation to preserve the protective order became necessary (Aloe Vera of America, Inc. v. United States, 376 F.3d 960 (9th Cir. 2004));
Obtaining public access to questions from the pilot version of a new high school graduation test under the Arizona Public Records Law (Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. v. Keegan, 201 Ariz. 344, 35 P.3d 105 (Ct. App. 2001));
Securing access to transcripts of closed hearings discussing alleged jury tampering in the criminal trial of the then-sitting governor of Arizona (Phoenix Newspapers, Inc. and KPNX Broadcasting v. United States District Court, 156 F.3d 940 (9th Cir. 1998));
Helping to establish the scope of the First Amendment journalists’ privilege in the Ninth Circuit (Shoen v. Shoen, 48 F.3d 412 (9th Cir. 1995));
Representing Arizona publishers and broadcasters in several matters involving access to court records and discovery in cases concerning allegations of priest pedophilia in the dioceses of Phoenix and Tucson;
Representing an author in FOIA litigation against the FBI seeking disclosure of documents involving the first major defector to the United States from Stalinist Russia, obtaining the requested documents and payment of attorneys’ fees; and
Representing publishers and broadcasters in government relations matters involving FOIA and similar state legislation.