TORONTO, JULY 6 -- American reporters were barred today from covering a sex-related manslaughter trial in Canada a few miles from the U.S.-Canadian border, even though representatives of Canadian news media were permitted inside the courtroom.

The doors were closed because the judge in the case feared that U.S. journalists, most of them from Buffalo area newspapers and television stations, would not abide by a publication ban on trial proceedings that he imposed Monday. All reporters were covered by the ban, but the judge allowed Canadian reporters inside the courtroom because, he said, they could be penalized for violating the ban while U.S. reporters could not.