Document production to government agency subject of Freedom bankruptcy hearing

Hearing held on Freedom bankruptcy documents

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware bankruptcy judge has declined to rule immediately in a dispute over document production in the Chapter 11 case of Freedom Communications Holdings Inc.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation wants access to the media company’s financial documents but does not want to sign a confidentiality agreement, as other members of Freedom’s committee of unsecured creditors have done.

The PBGC says signing the confidentiality agreement demanded by Freedom could violate the agency’s obligation to provide information to Congress or the executive branch if requested.

Following a hearing Monday, the judge said he needed time to consider the issue, which he and attorneys said they had not seen raised before in a bankruptcy case involving the pension agency.