Judge allows media to live-tweet Sandusky hearing

Senior Judge John Cleland has reversed himself and says he will allow news organizations to report the preliminary hearing for former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky  through Twitter, email and text messages.

Pennsylvania law bans “transmission of communications from the courtroom by telephone, radio, television, or advanced communication technology,” but at a hearing Monday requested by news organizations, Cleland appeared to carve out an exception for live electronic text reporting, deciding that the ban applied to “neither ‘tweeting’ or the simultaneous transmission of a reporter’s account or impression of events as they occur in the courtroom.”

The state rule is intended to bar “an audio and/or visual record” of events, Cleland ruled — not the actual reporting of the news.

Here’s the pdf of the full ruling.

I’ve wrapped up the day’s developments in a lookahead to tomorrow’s hearing over at msnbc.com:

Ex-colleague faces scrutiny at Sandusky sex-abuse hearing (M. Alex Johnson/msnbc.com)