Crowdfunding campaign will support a professional stenographer to produce transcripts and provide them to the public and press
Freedom of the Press Foundation has announced a crowdfunding campaign to hire a professional court stenographer to produce transcripts of the trial of whistleblower Bradley Manning, scheduled to begin June 3rd, 2013.
In a press release on their site the organization stated;
As has been documented by many media organizations, the pre-trial hearings of Bradley Manning have been hampered by heavy-handed government secrecy. Government briefs are not released to the public, written rulings are rarely given to journalists, and most importantly, there is no official transcript of the proceedings. This has denied the public of opportunities for a range of accurate, timely, and in-depth reporting on the trial.
The Center for Constitutional Rights filed a First Amendment lawsuit on behalf of a variety of news 
organizations and journalists seeking timely access to court documents, but the military court of appeals ruled in favor of continued secrecy.
As PBS recounted recently, “Because there is no official court record, the public is entirely dependent on the accounts of the reporters on-scene — the few who can fit into the courtroom making notes longhand, or the rest who report from the media center, typing down words and details frantically and hoping they don’t make any mistakes.”
This campaign aims to fully fund a court stenographer, who will be credentialed with a media organization and attend the trial in the court’s media room. The court stenographer will produce a transcript of the trial, and as soon as the transcripts are available, the Freedom of the Press Foundation will post them online for journalists and the public.
“Journalists covering Manning’s case face many Kafkaesque obstacles, but nothing is more punitive than the government’s refusal to provide a timely and accurate transcript. By funding a court stenographer, we hope to help journalists in their effort to report on the trial,” said Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who serves on the board of directors of Freedom of the Press Foundation and attended Manning’s Article 32 hearing.
Given the trial may last three to four months, the organization aims to raise $40,000 – 50,000 to cover the costs of this project.
Manning has already pleaded guilty to giving documents to WikiLeaks and faces up to twenty years in prison. The remaining counts—including charges under the Espionage Act and for ‘aiding the enemy’—are punitive, unnecessary, and could have a permanent effect on both whistleblowers rights and press freedom in the United States. Therefore, if the trial ends early, or we are unable to transcribe the proceedings for any reason, the proceeds will be donated to the Bradley Manning Defense Fund.
“The government has tried to shut the public out of the Manning hearings,” said Glenn Greenwald, acclaimed journalist and Freedom of the Press Foundation board member. “O’Brien and Gosztola are giving the public a virtual seat in the courtroom. Their detailed daily reports help hold the government accountable for its actions during the proceedings. That’s some of the most powerful work a journalist can do, and we’re glad to help support that work in the coming months.”