NEW YORK, NY January 23, 2007 —A Federal court has ruled that the city cannot keep records and videotapes collected during the 2004 Republican Convention secret from the public. WNYC's Kathleen Horan has more.

REPORTER: The city faced about 90 separate lawsuits involving 560 plaintiffs after the mass arrests- during the convention. The documents, were released to lawyers involved in the litigation but the city said they believed the records were confidential and should remain that way. But the Civil Liberties Union's Chris Dunn says he believes the documents will reveal that protestors were treated unfairly.

DUNN: The police department claims that it did no wrong and it had to arrest thousands of people during the convention and hold them for 3 days is untrue.

REPORTER: But city lawyer Peter Farrell says the city opposed the publication of documents in the case to preserve the privacy of people involved in the protests - but not in the litigation. For WNYC, I'm Kathleen Horan.