A proposed chief justice directive should be revised to allow the livestreaming of criminal trials and evidentiary hearings in Colorado courtrooms and permit virtual access to civil proceedings, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the state’s news associations urged the Colorado Supreme Court.

CFOIC president Steve Zansberg, a media and First Amendment lawyer, submitted comments for CFOIC, the Colorado Press Association and the Colorado Broadcasters Association on Tuesday in response to draft rules posted by the judicial branch earlier this month.

“There should be a strong presumption in favor of livestreaming of judicial proceedings that are open to the public,” Zansberg wrote.

But as proposed, the rules would not permit the livestreaming of evidentiary hearings and trials in criminal cases, which “would be a radical departure from the status quo in which numerous criminal trials have been livestreamed, and, to our knowledge, no court has heretofore encountered any difficulty or problem as a result thereof.”