MEL Gibson and Paris Hilton have inspired California lawmakers to propose legislation to protect celebrities caught breaking the law.

August 21st, 2007

Amid concern over the frenzy of entertainment internet blogs and tabloids competing for inside information on Gibson’s tirade during a drunk-driving arrest and Hilton’s days in jail, state lawmakers have taken steps to clamp down on some forms of chequebook journalism.A bill currently going through the Legislature will - if passed - make it a crime for law enforcement or court employees to profit by releasing confidential information gathered in criminal investigations or unauthorised photographs of people in custody.

The proposed legislation - which was requested by controversial Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, whose staff dealt with Gibson and Hilton - has outraged the media in the golden state. Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association said the measure would whittle away press freedoms for the convenience of celebrities.

“It’s the Paris Hilton and Mel Gibson Protection Act,” he told The Los Angeles Times.

“Fundamentally, it attempts to regulate news gathering and criminalise it.”But proponents said outlawing celebrity leaks and punishing public employees who take cash from the media was a necessary move to restore faith in the state’s justice system following allegations of law enforcement officials providing prohibited information for cash

Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, who introduced the bill at Sheriff Baca’s request, said the digital media age and obsession with celebrity news made the law a necessity. “I felt it was important to help law enforcement to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system,” she said.

“So-called traditional media (have) obtained information and pictures through official channels and via the Public Records Act.

“The new Internet media and others have recently been attempting to circumvent the system by offering law enforcement officials money for information and pictures of celebrities.”

Ms Brownley said the bill would not quash acts protected by state whistle-blower laws, including the release of information involving allegations of improper activity by government agencies or officials. Sheriff Baca’s office is investigating the leak of Gibson’s police report to LA celebrity news agency blog TMZ after the star’s arrest in July last year - which subsequently made headlines around the world.

“When we arrested Mel Gibson we lost control of the information and it ended up on a blog,” Baca said.

“The question is whether that was done for profit or gratuitously.”

The investigation has not found evidence that police documents and information in Gibson case was released to TMZ for financial gain.

TMZ published parts of a deputy’s account of the actor-director spouting anti-Semitic remarks as he was being arrested for drink driving in Malibu.

The bill would make it a misdemeanor for those entrusted with such material to receive financial gain in exchange for confidential information obtained in a criminal investigation or to solicit or offer financial compensation for such information.

The ban would include “any unauthorised photograph or video taken inside any secure area of a law enforcement or court facility”.

Sheriff Lee Baca said the law was a necessity in an age when a photo of a jailed Paris Hilton could have reportedly fetched up to $US500,000 ($A620,00).

“It was like putting a bounty on her,” Baca said.

No photographs have been published of Hilton in her cell during her 23-day sentence at LA’s Century Regional Detention Facility Hilton for violating the terms of her probation on alcohol-related charges of reckless driving.

Sheriff Baca said he was concerned about confidential information being sold even if it was not about celebrities.

“We in law enforcement have a tremendous amount of information (and providing it to anyone) for profit is wrong,” he said.

Recently allegations of California law enforcement officials releasing confidential information have made headlines in the US.

Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who was recently charged for illegal wiretapping, alleged that he paid members of law enforcement agencies for confidential information while doing background checks in cases involving celebrities, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon.

In another incident, an Los Angeles Police Department investigation determined last month that one of the agency’s officers used a mobile phone to shoot video of the rapper known as The Game as he was held in a jail cell after being arrested.

The video, provided to TMZ, showed the entertainer bragging and waving a wad of money.

TMZ posted the video May 12, the day after police arrested the rapper at his Glendale home on suspicion of making criminal threats.

Investigators said the unidentified officer insisted that he provided the video to TMZ for fun and they had not found any evidence that the officer was compensated.

By Peta Hellard in Los Angeles