by TChris

Freedom of the press isn't so free in San Mateo County, at least for television stations that want their reporters and camera crews to have a convenient space to work while covering Scott Peterson's trial. For a mere $51,000, San Mateo County is allowing stations to use one of sixteen 13 by 17 foot spaces next to the courthouse.

The $51,000 fee amounts to about $230 per square foot. At the height of the dot-com boom, prime office space in San Francisco leased for about $80 per square foot.

The fee doesn't include a $7,500 a month charge for parking satellite trucks. Reporters are not being charged for using a media center located a block from the courthouse.

Steve Alms, the county's real property services manager, defends what might be seen as an effort at profiteering, stating that the county is being "fiscally responsible" by "trying to recover the cost burden" on the county. But stations complained both about the amount of and the deadline for the payment.

When Alms said the fee was due Saturday at noon, he was nearly shouted down by reporters and producers in the room, saying that even major networks can't get that kind of money together in less than a day.

Alms responded by extending the deadline to February 13.