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Illinois to allow cameras in court: report

The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to announce Tuesday that it will allow cameras in trial courtrooms for the first time in the state’s history.

“We need to have the courts be more open,” Illinois Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride told the Illinois Statehouse News.

The program will be a pilot project in which the chief judges of each judicial circuit can choose whether to take part, according to the news service.

Once a chief judge applies to take part and wins approval from the state Supreme Court, news media can request to use cameras in covering eligible trials in that court district, Kilbride told Illinois Statehouse News.

An Illinois Supreme Court spokesman didn’t return phone calls, but posted on Twitter that an announcement is coming on “a matter of interest” Tuesday morning.

Reporters are already allowed to make audio recordings of Illinois Supreme Court arguments if they give advance notice and video of the arguments is posted online.

The rule change would be a first for lower courts, though, which strictly bar the use of cameras.

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