ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Police seized more than 100 unpublished Anchorage Daily News photos taken at a shooting scene, then returned them a few hours later after learning the action violated federal law.
A similar warrant was served at KTVA-TV, and police also later returned a video of aired footage that was taken.
Police officials said they might seek court-ordered subpoenas for the photographs and video in their investigation of the shooting at a pickup football game Sunday that put one man in the hospital.
Deputy chief Ross Plummer said the images might help police identify who was at the game.
The photos - which show people running from the stadium, tending to a wounded man and looking on - were seized after police served a search warrant at the newspaper office Wednesday.
The Daily News has offered police more than three dozen published photos, editor Patrick Dougherty said. He said the newspaper would resist a subpoena for unpublished photos as a matter of policy.
"I have made clear to police there is no information available in unpublished photos that isn't available in the published ones," Dougherty said.
Staci Feger, news director at KTVA, said police weren't asking the station for any unaired video footage. She said the station would not contest a subpoena for the video if presented with one.
Federal law prohibits almost all searches of newsrooms. News organizations served with a subpoena have the right to argue before a judge why the information should be kept confidential.
Dougherty said that without the ability to hold back unpublished material, "we cannot fulfill our First Amendment responsibility. It's a principle we must defend, and can defend in this case without preventing police from doing their job."
