Noriega Tapes Can Be Broadcast, Judge Rules : Law: CNN has aired the only attorney-client talk that is involved. The defense does not object to the decision.

A federal judge Wednesday lifted the ban against the broadcast of tape recordings of Manuel A. Noriega’s jailhouse phone conversations, effectively ending a three-week legal battle over the rights of the press versus the right to a fair trial.

After reviewing seven tapes turned over by Cable News Network, U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler determined that the only attorney-client conversation on the tapes already had been broadcast by CNN, which had aired some of the tapes before the judge ordered the network to stop.

“The tapes may be published as CNN wishes to publish them,” Hoeveler said during a hearing.

Frank Rubino, Noriega’s chief defense counsel, said he had no objection to the lifting of the ban. “The damage is done,” he said. “A ban now is like shutting the barn door after the horse escapes.”

Rubino said he would pursue his motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of government misconduct, along with a separate motion asking that the network be found in contempt of court for airing more of Noriega’s conversations after the judge’s Nov. 8 ban, and that CNN be fined $300,000 per broadcast.

CNN first broadcast two weeks ago portions of several tape recordings that were made by officials of the federal prison south of here where Noriega has been held on drug charges since he was seized during the U.S. invasion of Panama 11 months ago.

One of those conversations was between Noriega and a Spanish-speaking secretary for Rubino who served as a translator.

After the first broadcast, Rubino asked Hoeveler to issue a ban, and he did. CNN appealed that temporary order, and on Nov. 18 the Supreme Court refused to lift it.

Steven Korn, an attorney for CNN’s parent company, Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc., reiterated the network position that prior restraint is never appropriate. “It’s fizzled,” he said of the issue.

Rodney Smolla, a William and Mary law professor who heads the school’s Institute of Bill of Rights Law, told the Associated Press that it would have been better had the issue returned to the high court for a final resolution.

The fact that the Supreme Court let the ban stand “casts its shadow, and the shadow is negative,” he said. “Other lawyers will aggressively pursue these sorts of strategies against news organizations. The battle isn’t over yet.”

CNN founder Ted Turner, who was attending the Western Cable Television conference Wednesday in Anaheim, described the ruling as “a positive development . . . . It doesn’t really resolve the 1st Amendment issue completely . . . (but) it’s good for us.”

CNN President Tom Johnson said the network can now pursue its story on the government’s taping of the ousted Panamanian leader’s conversations.

“CNN’s coverage of this possible misconduct was delayed by this judicial prior restraint on press freedom,” he said. “Despite the unfortunate delay, CNN’s reporting of government taping of Noriega phone conversations will continue.”

The government has acknowledged routine taping of prisoners’ phone calls at federal prisons. Noriega signed a release acknowledging that his calls were being monitored, but the defense said that release does not apply to conversations with his attorneys.

Hoeveler on Wednesday ordered the Bureau of Prisons to cease sharing Noriega’s tapes with other government agencies unless he approves.

The case against Noriega, who is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 28, is plagued now by only one “collateral issue,” in Hoeveler’s words, and that is money. Rubino says he has been unpaid for the last 11 months because about $27 million stashed by Noriega in overseas bank accounts has been frozen at the request of the U.S. government.

On Monday, Hoeveler ordered the government to try again to make some of that money available.