=== Falun Gong
1. Paper joins sect row

=== Scientology
2. The fight over photos

=== Unification Church
3. Unification's Moon Offers Social Message
4. Korean Evangelist Visits City
5. The Bush-Kim-Moon Triangle of Money

=== International Churches of Christ
6. New Rangers Star to pay for cult recruiting drive

=== Buddhism
7. Possessed Peacock Pines for Home

=== Islam
8. Voices in Muslim World Decry Taliban Vow to Destroy Statues
9. The Taliban, the Buddhas and the Saudi connection
10. Falwell's remark that Islam 'teaches hate' sparks outrage
11. The True Face of Islam

=== Mormonism
12. Court Gives Utah Clergy Protection
13. Don't call it 'Mormon'
14. (...) in Response to a Story on CNN.com
15. Mormon Is Nation's First Porn Czar

=== Hate Groups
16. Coeur d'Alene vows to arrest armed Aryans
17. Demonstrators disrupt white supremacist gathering

=== Faith Healing
18. Charges follow faith-healing death

=== Rebirthing
19. 'Candace's Law' Gains Support

=== Other News
20. False memory case has nationwide implications
21. Fla. Church Leader Found Guilty (Greater Ministries)
22. Sect leader detains girl on 'God's orders'
23. Faith Initiative May Be Revised
24. Religious Groups Warn of Bush Plan
25. Biological weapons pose threat to Canada, U.S., scientist says

=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations
26. Boy, 14, gets life for murder
27. An Extreme Sentence in Florida
28. U.S. stands out with stance on youth crime
29. Modifying Stand, Ferrer Backs Moratorium on Executions
30. Death Penalty Reform

=== Noted
31. A New Portrait Of How Americans View Religion

=== The Coffee Shop Around The Corner
32. Let There Be Coffee -- And It Was Latte


=== Scientology

2. The fight over photos
St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 8, 2001
http://www.sptimes.com/

TALLAHASSEE -- Dale Earnhardt's legacy is extending beyond the racetrack and into state politics.

Amid a court fight over whether photos of the NASCAR legend's autopsy should be examined by a newspaper, Gov. Jeb Bush and state legislators on Wednesday launched an extraordinary effort to make photos and videos of all autopsies exempt from public records laws.
(...)

All autopsy photos are public record now. The legislation would make them exempt from the public records law and force anyone -- except law enforcement officials -- who wanted to view them to seek permission from a judge.

Anyone who violated the ban or a judge's conditions for the release of the photos would be guilty of a third-degree felony, punishable by five years in prison.

Barbara Petersen, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, said it would be all but impossible to gain access to autopsy photos if the legislation becomes law.

She said a newspaper or anyone else wanting to see the photos would have to file a lawsuit against the county medical examiner and ask a judge to issue a subpoena requiring the release of the photos.
(...)

Over the years, news organizations in Florida have reviewed autopsy photos in high-profile cases.

Last year, the St. Petersburg Times filed a lawsuit and successfully persuaded a judge to order the release of photos of the 1995 autopsy of Lisa McPherson, who died while in the care of Church of Scientology staffers.

The newspaper did not publish the photos, but a few of the 40 photos were placed on the Times' Web site.

''While those photos were difficult and challenging and disturbing,'' Tash said, ''we thought it vital that the public be able to review them. And after reviewing them, we chose to publish two or three of them on our Web site so that readers so inclined could have some independent understanding of the facts upon which the prosecutors acted.''
[...more...]


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