Seven members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and a sympathizer are scheduled to go on trial today in Gainesville, Fla. on charges of conspiracy to disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention.
U.S. District Court Judge Winston E. Arnew said yesterday that only five newsmen will be allowed to cover today's proceedings because the courtroom has only 100 seats and 88 prospective jurors have been called.
Arnew refused to relax the restraining order which prohibits participants in the case from making statements to the press. "In every case where there is a clash between freedom of the press and a fair trial, freedom of the press must give way," he said.
The men, known as the Gainesville Eight, are charged with conspiring to stage raids on the Miami GOP convention and nearby police stations with sling shots, automatic weapons and fire bombs.
The government's case rests heavily on the testimony of two paid informers. The defendants have said that the informers proposed plans for criminal acts and offered to sell them weapons but that both proposals were rejected.
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