Two major newspapers are fighting a request for a gag order by Eastern Airlines' creditors, who seek to stop press leaks in the beleaguered airline's 10-month-old bankruptcy proceeding. The latest tangle in the Eastern saga pits the creditors committee against The New York Times and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and centers on unauthorized disclosure of creditor opinions. If U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton R. Lifland grants the creditor committee request, violators could be held in contempt of court. The Times and Dow Jones say a gag order would violate First Amendment guarantees and prevent reporting on a story in which much of the information has been derived from tips and leaks. Attorneys for the Times and Dow Jones have sent letters to Lifland, who is scheduled to hear the case Jan. 30. The Times has filed legal briefs. Dow Jones expects to do so by the Jan. 15 deadline, spokesman Roger May said Tuesday. Eastern workers struck last March in an emotional walkout that almost immediately sent the moneylosing airline into bankruptcy court. Pilots and flight attendants quit the strike in November but Machinists union members remain out. The pilots, Machinists and flight attendants unions, who are represented on the creditors' committee, plan to support the panel's position, union attorneys said. Eastern also will support the creditors' request to the court, Eastern spokesman Robin Matell said from the airline's headquarters in Miami. All creditors committee members agreed last spring to keep information discussed by the panel confidential. In their documents, the Times and Dow Jones said courts must follow specific guidelines before restraining media access in a case. Their attorneys argue that the creditors' request doesn't meet those guidelines. ``The proposed order would, without any showing of need, judicially silence hundreds of potential speakers and would undoubtedly deprive the public of informed views perhaps at odds with the `party line' of the (creditors) committee itself,'' the Times says in its brief. ``It crosses all of the established barriers to prior restraint.'' The Times also argues that the creditors' request would be ineffective and unenforceable, and suggests the news leaks haven't come from the creditors committee. In addition to the Air Line Pilots Association, the Machinists and the Transport Workers Union, other members of the creditors' committee include: Airbus Industrie, the European aircraft consortium; General Electric Co.; Boeing Co.; United Technologies Credit Corp.; Rolls-Royce Credit Corp.; Marriott Corp.; and AT&T Communications.
