The Region - News from Feb. 11, 1986

A federal appeals court denied a petition by the Radio and Television News Assn. of Southern California that a gag order be lifted in the espionage retrial of former FBI agent Richard Miller. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that although the order imposed by U.S. District Judge David Kenyon on attorneys indirectly denies the media access to trial participants, it does not infringe on freedom of the press. The press has no constitutional right to interview participants, only to listen, watch and report, the court ruled. Miller, whose first trial ended last November with a deadlocked jury, faces retrial Thursday.