Hackers assault PBS for its documentary on WikiLeaks

Roiled by the PBS Frontline documentary on WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, hackers launched attacks by posting a fake news story on a PBS blog, cracking its servers and posting stolen passwords. Supporters of Bradley Manning were upset that the documentary dwelled on Manning’s emotional problems and gave little detail of his restrictive pre-trial confinement.  -db [...]

Law firm sues Courtney Love for defamation

Celebrity Courtney Love asked the law firm Gordon & Holmes to help her recover money and property allegedly stolen from her late husband’s estate. The firm agreed to represent her conditional on her remaining sober during their client-attorney relationship. When the firm subsequently refused to represent her, they claim Love became angry and sent a [...]

Federal judge rules secret filming of activist group not protected under First Amendment

A federal district judge ruled that the First Amendment does not protect two conservative investigators who secretly filmed a member of the national activist group, ACORN. After asking if they could speak confidentially, the two filmed and recorded the conversation. The judge rejected the argument that the First Amendment protections for journalists superseded the California [...]

Free speech: Washington antiwar group can continue with suit over infiltration

A federal district judge ruled that an antiwar group can continue to press its lawsuit against a former military civilian employee and his boss after the employee infiltrated their email list. The group claimed that the infiltration violated their First Amendment rights. Under a Freedom of Information Request, the County released records of the incident [...]

Federal judge opens door for release of records in Giffords shooting

The Washington Post said it was a “positive development” when a federal district judge said the U.S. Attorney’s office could review the records in the Tucson shootings in January that killed six and wounded 13 including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and after redacting any private or confidential information, could release them to the media. Under a [...]

Editorial alleges Bay Area Rapid Transit violating open meeting law with subcommittes

A Contra Costa Times editorial alleges that Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is violating the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, by establishing 20 subcommittees that meet behind closed doors. BART claims they are only advisory committees, but the editorial argues that even so they violate the spirit and letter of the law. The editorial [...]

Federal judge rules corporations can make direct contributions to political candidates

A federal district judge in Virginia ruled that U.S. laws prohibiting corporations form contributing directly to candidates are unconstitutional given last year’s  Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC. That ruling found that corporations and individuals have equal rights to unfettered political expression. The  judge wrote, “For better or worse, Citizens United held that there [...]

California: Open meeting law ignored in demolition of historic Ross schoolhouse

A cherished landmark, the one-room school house in Ross, California, was destroyed without public input sometime in 2007. Hidden from public view on the Ross Common, no one noticed until this year that the century-old building was no longer there. Town officials have found no records showing that the issue was ever placed on a [...]

The secret’s out: transit system needs to come clean

The Bay Area Rapid Transit District, in response to charges of “secrecy and bureaucracy run amok,” has promised to reverse a years-long practice of holding closed meetings about the public’s business. After a blistering editorial by the Contra Costa Times, the district’s board of directors acknowledged that as many as 20 committees have met privately [...]

California public universities agree to transparency for foundations

California state universities have opened the door to transparency for campus foundations with a compromise with state Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco. The agreement will protect the privacy of most donors but allow disclosure of other financial details. The foundations and operations such as campus bookstores would operate under the California Public Records Act. The agreement [...]

Ferment of new sportswriting invading web

Writing for the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, Tim Carmody describes current sports reporting on the internet as innovative and exciting. He notes a number of recent aggregations, blogs and other presentations including the literary that allow the reader faster, more convenient access and promise an even richer involvement in the sports scene. Carmody [...]

Federal appeals court orders new trial in defamation suit over election fliers

A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial in a defamation suit voiding the $3.6 million award to a man who maintained that a sheriff libeled him and a friend in fliers before a run-off election in 2000. The fliers said the two friends were criminals. The criminal charge, later dropped, stemmed from an [...]

Opinion: WikiLeaks needs special recognition and protection

WikiLeaks would be at a disadvantage should it find itself in federal court trying to withhold the identity of a source since it does qualify for reporter’s privilege according to criterion laid out by a federal court of appeals in 1998. The appeals court said to qualify, a person must be practicing investigative reporting, gathering news and [...]

Frontline delves into Bradley Manning’s ‘WikiSecrets’

Frontline reports the inside story of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history in WikiSecrets airing this week on PBS stations nationwide or on demand on the Frontline website.  Other resources available online include access to Bradley Mannings Facebook page, interviews with Julian Assange, Adrian Lamo and Brian Manning, and [...]

A&A: The board reached ‘a unanimous decision’ but also claimed ‘no action was taken’ in closed session

Q: I am a director of a charter high school who was recently put on administrative leave (via an email that stated it was by unanimous decision of the board) following a closed meeting at which they announced “No action was taken.” I do not understand how no action could have been taken yet there [...]

California company agrees to remove block to gay educational websites

Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, a California software company agreed to remove a web filter blocking public school students from access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender websites. Removing the filter allows over additional 6 million students to check out the sites. Suzanne Ito wrote in an ACLU commentary that the public [...]

Arrests of journalists in international danger spots chill news coverage

The arrest and release of Al Jazeera’s Dorothy Parvaz, who was covering the protests in Syria, is but one of a number of events that demonstrates the dangers journalists face reporting the news around the world. Parvaz had many well-placed people working for her release, but others may not be so fortunate as news organizations [...]

Palin biographer under investigation for ethics violations

Frank Bailey, a former aide to Sarah Palin, is under investigation in Alaska for writing a book critical of Palin using thousands of e-mails from her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, her run for vice president in 2008 and her brief tenure as governor. The Alaska attorney general  is investigating Bailey’s use of the emails under laws [...]

United Kingdom: Courts battle social media in flap over soccer star’s alleged affair

A British soccer star obtained a court order forbidding the traditional news media from publishing details of his alleged affair with a “Big Brother” contestant, but the effect 0f the injunction waxed small in the wake of some 75,00o weekend postings about the affair on the social media. The judge stubbornly reaffirmed the need for [...]

Defense Department puts heat on employees to report suspicious information flows

A new directive requires Department of Defense personnel to report suspicious activities and behavior. Personnel could be punished for failing to report the specified activities. Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News writes, “The directive lists numerous actions that are subject to mandatory reporting including ‘attempts to obtain classified or sensitive information by an individual not authorized [...]

Woman sues after radio host posts her photo online falsely claiming she was pregnant with football player’s child

A newlywed whose husband is serving in Afghanistan is suing a radio host in federal court for posting a photo of her on the host’s station’s website saying that she is pregnant with football player Chad Ochocinco’s child. The woman said she does not know Ochocinco. The woman is suing for punitive damages for defamation, [...]

Free speech: High school girls’ risque photos subject of federal suit

Two sophomore girls are suing their Indiana school district in federal court after they were disciplined for posting online photos of themselves posing with phallic lollipops. Both the girls and the district are basing their pleas on the Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, the district arguing that the photos appeal to prurient interests [...]

California: Winters school district trustees alleged to have violated open meeting law

The Yolo County Grand Jury reported that the Winters Joint Unified School District board of trustees violated California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, by failing to properly place an important personnel item on the agenda. The report was released a little over a year after the board fired a popular principal at Winters High [...]

Alaskan corporation drops suit against investigative journalists

Suulutaaq.Inc. is dropping its defamation suit aimed at California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting. It had claimed that a California Watch story about federal stimulus money defamed their company. CIR’s Robert J. Rosenthal, said, “The story illuminated details about how stimulus funds are spent in California, focusing on a project that had already [...]

College publications director wins first round in case over speech criticizing employer

Operating under the umbrella of the Supreme Court decision limiting employee speech, a college publications director won the first round in a lawsuit against her college for firing her for saying that the college forced employees to do political work. A federal district  judge reinstated he woman’s suit saying that as a statement on corruption, [...]

Blow to student press freedom: Federal appeals court bars publication of ‘lewd’ stick figures

In a decision said to be seriously damaging to student press freedom, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a stick figure cartoon about sex education could be censored in both a school newspaper and an independent off-campus publication. In ruling against the students, the court made a distinction between the students’ newspaper as [...]

Opinion: Newspaper critical of White House should be included in press pool

First Amendment Center’s Gene Policinski says the White House should honor the spirit of the First Amendment and not make decisions on what news outlet is included in the press pool covering the president’s appearances based on how “regularly and fairly” an outlet reporta on the president. The conservative Boston Herald was not included in [...]

Federal appeals court reinstates defamation suit holding that broadcast omitted key details

A federal appeals court held that a West Virginia daycare owner could pursue a defamation suit against a television station for omitting the fact that alleged abuse was tied to a single incident of child-to-child contact. A trial court had found that for the station on the grounds that all statements in the broadcast were [...]

California college dean loses defamation suit against blogger

A Los Angeles judge agreed with a blogger that a former Cal Poly College of Engineering dean had violated his First Amendment free speech rights in filing a defamation suit over posts challenging an agreement to open an engineering program in Saudi Arabia that would allegedly bar women, Jews and gays. The judge said the [...]

California union subject to defamation suit as state court denies SLAPP claim

A California labor union is facing a defamation suit after a state appellate court ruled that a company executive was justified in filing suit against the union for distributing unflattering leaflets to the executive’s neighbors. The court ruled that the leafletting concerned a private matter, did not rise to the level of public interest and [...]

Buzzfeed initiating class action suit against Righthaven

Righthaven is stubbornly digging in as Buzzfeed files a counter claim against them for faulty lawsuits. Buzzfeed is arguing that Righthavens suits, filed after news outlets transfer the right to sue to Righthaven to exact monetary damages, are an “abuse of process”. Mike Masnick writes in TechDirt, “After documents were unsealed that show that the [...]

Danish director claims to be a Nazi, banned from Cannes Film Festival

Danish director Lars von Trier called himself a Nazi and said he sympathized with Adolf Hitler at a press conference during the Cannes Film Festival. Festival directors released a statement saying von Trier’s remarks violated the ideals of the festival and declared him persona non grata. Von Trier has won numberous awards at the festival. [...]

Multiple sources including those on Twitter pose challenges for journalists

As one journalist described it, he has “a personalized wire service” of over 2,000 sources on Twitter who provide him with tips and on-location news reports. While this sort of access is of inestimable value, it present immense difficulties as well. Writing in GigaOM, Mathew Ingram says that with gathering so much information on the [...]

Dentist loses defamation case must pay Yelp and reviewers for legal fees

A California dentist, who sued Yelp and reviewers for a bad review concerning a filling the dentist put into the mouth of the reviewers’ six-year-old son, must pay court costs according to a ruling in district court. A California appellate court ruled last year that Yelp could not be held for defamation because the post [...]

Federal court says FBI and CIA must produce documents on Oklahoma City bombing sought under FOIA

A federal judge has ordered the FBI and CIA to to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a attorney seeking documents on the  Oklahoma City bombing. After the bombing, the attorney’s  brother, who sported a dragon tattoo similar to that of an unidentified accomplice in the bombing, was detained in federal [...]

California Supreme Court limits attorney’s free speech rights in opposing former client

The California Supreme Court ruled that an attorney did not qualify for protection under the First Amendment after he used confidential information from his client-attorney relationship in opposing his former client in a political campaign. Oasis West Realty had retained attorney Kenneth Goldman to help them obtain approval in Beverley Hills for a development project. [...]

Federal appeals court affirms access to sentencing of criminals

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the press and public have a First Amendment right to attend the sentencing of a criminal defendant. The court also said that there must be public notice and a chance for the public to comment before the sentencing. The court noted that there was [...]

California: St. Helena newspaper holding city council to account on open meeting issues

The St. Helena Star is alleging that the St. Helena City Council has once again violated California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, by not posting their discussion of compensation for former City Manager, Mary Neilan. The council held a closed door meeting to discuss Neilan’s no-cause firing and negotiated a severance package and confidentiality [...]

Small market newspapers tapping into online subscription revenue

A study from the University of Missouri shows that 46 percent of newspapers with circulations under 25,00o are charging for online news. The newspapers are using innovative packages to prevent readers from abandoning print subscriptions and to glean another source of revenue. The Columbian (Mo.) Daily  Tribune reported that ad revenues were up 25 percent [...]

Opinion: Alliance with law and journalism schools needed to shore up news industry

With shrinking budgets for news coverage, reporters often lack the legal backing to wage a vigorous battle for freedom of information. Craig A. Newman, a reporter turned lawyer, writes that a Knight Foundation study showed that in the last five years litigation over access to information had fallen precipitously. Part of the solution, says Newman, [...]

Next Page »