Fourteen-year-old girl protests perfect faces in fashion magazines

An eighth grade student from Maine met with a Seventeen editor last week to make the case that models in her favorite magazines were not real and made girls across the country too self-conscious of their blemishes. The girl posted an online petition asking the magazine to print one unaltered photo spread a month. -db [...]

Buffet says he may buy newspapers

Warren Buffet, the eminent octogenarian investor, expressed interest in acquiring newspapers even if profits would be modest. Buffet said there was a future for newspapers in places where there was “a sense of community.” He bought his hometown Omaha World Herald last year. -db From The Telegraph, May 5, 2012, by Richard Blackden. Full story [...]

California appeals court upholds juvenile offender’s right of access to courthouse

A California appeals court ruled that a judge could not as part of  his probation conditions restrict a juvenile offender’s right to enter the courthouse. The court found that the restriction would abridge the juvenile’s right to enter the courthouse in legitimate exercise of his constitutional rights. -db From a commentary for the First Amendment [...]

Federal appeals court voids $19.6 million judgment against Hustler Magazine

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a $19.6 million jury award to the family of Nancy Benoit who sued Hustler Magazine for publishing nude photos of her after she was murdered by her husband. “Because there was overwhelming evidence that [the publishing company] reasonably and honestly (albeit mistakenly) believed that the photographs were [...]

First Amendment rights: Occupy journalists and protesters ask for federal monitor of NYPD

Together with Occupy protesters and journalists, the New York City Council is asking a federal court to appoint a monitor for the policy department on First Amendment rights. The request followed the beating of a council member who had gone to the Occupy site, complied with a police directive but was still attacked and arrested. [...]

Jolie ring designer sues celebrity blogger for defamation

The ring designer who fashioned Angelina Jolie’s $1 million engagement ring has sued celebrity blogger Perez Hilton claiming Perez  falsely accused him of selling a diamond necklace in 1985 that was only 17 carats of diamonds rather than the promised 25 carats. -db From the Courthouse News Service, May 03, 2012, by Matt Reynolds. Full [...]

Opinion: ‘Clearance culture’ results in ludicrous self-censorship

Despite clear court decisions upholding the free speech rights of creative people to use trademarked goods in art, “clearance cuture” requires them to ask permission. Despite there being no legal stricture against it, identifying law enforcement agencies by name, badge, patch or vehicle markings is verboten. -db From a commentary for The Center for Internet [...]

Opinion: Mexico needs to do much more to protect journalists murdered at a disturbing rate

With 80 journalist killed over the last 12 years, the Mexican must mount some serious efforts to protect reporters. The legislature is transferring responsibility for prosecuting attacks on the press from local and state officials to the federal government, a promising first step. -db From an editorial in The Globe and Mail, April 30, 2012. [...]

Opinion: Grooveshark attempt to find identity of anonymous blogger pointless and threat to free speech

For reasons that defy logic, Grooveshark is trying to force Digital Music News to identify a blogger who claimed to work for Grooveshar, writes Mike Masnick in techdirt. -db Masnick argues that the ill-advised attempt could run up against the First Amendment. -db From a commentary in techdirt,  May 1, 2012, by Mike Masnick. Full [...]

White House suppresses news about Obama trip to Afghanistan

After an early report that President Barack Obama was going to Afghanistan on the anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden to sign an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the White House mounted a campaign to delete the report and to deny the trip in the interest of protecting the president’s life. -db [...]

News organizations object to Romney decision to exclude BuzzFeed from media pool

The Romney campaign decision to determine which media groups should be in the media pool was not well received by the news industry. Traditionally, the media itself decides who should be part of the pool and produce reports that are shared. The campaign wants to exclude the website BuzzFeed from the pool covering their activities. [...]

Cornell censors student newspaper before visit by prospective students

An employee of Cornell University tore the cover off 30 to 40 copies of the April Fools’ edition of The Cornell Daily Sun to keep prospective students from seeing it. The newspaper is not funded by the university. -db From the Student Press Law Center, May 2, 2012, by Emily Summars. Full story  

ACLU appeals to Guantanamo commission to allow defendants to testify about torture

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the Guantanamo Bay military commission to allow defendants to give details of their detention and treatment at the hands of the CIA and the military. The government claims that any testimony and the CIA’s interrogation would be classified and not for public dissemination. Defendants are scheduled to appear [...]

Federal appeals court: City worker wins prior restraint ruling in bid to help fired colleague

A mayor lost a round in federal appeals court over the firing of an employee, Keri Williams, and an attempt to muzzle the employee’s colleague, Lindsey Whitney, whom he ordered not to speak out for Williams. The appeals panel ruled that, in fact, the mayor committed prior restraint in violating Whitney’s First Amendment rights. -db [...]

California: St. Helena planning group may have violated open meeting law with e-mails

In sending an e-mail to the director about layoffs in the St. Helena Planning Department, a commissioner sent a copy to fellow commissioners, an alleged violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. The law prevents a majority of a legislative body from communicating outside a public meeting. -db From the  St. Helena [...]

California: Autodesk sues to stop online falsehoods that endanger employees

Autodesk filed a lawsuit seeking the source of anonymous postings containing false information about the company, some of which could endanger employees working in the Middle East. One posting claimed that an employee in the Middle East was interested in starting a porn business and that a second employee was gay. -db From the Marin [...]

Times Square strip club sues CBS News for defamation

The Cheetah Club, a New York strip club in Times Square, is suing CBS News for a story that the club is the headquarters for a mob scheme to import women from other countries to work as strippers. Club owners claim that federal authorities said The Cheetah Club was never a focus of their investigation [...]

The future of journalism: Nebraska center of experiment in flying drone journalism

With a green light for innovation in journalism, Matt Waite, a University of Nebraska professor, is rallying forces to harness flying drones to gather the news. Waite thinks the potential is there for reporters to go on the scene of a disaster or protest and have a drone overhead sending images increasing the speed and [...]

Federal judge throws out lawsuit against ‘Three Cups of Tea’ author

A federal judge in Montana dismissed a lawsuit against celebrated author Greg Mortenson for stretching the truth in his nonfiction books, “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones to Schools.” The plaintiffs claimed that they paid $15 for books that purported to tell truthful, heartwarming stories but failed to deliver. -db From the Los Angeles Times, [...]

Opinion: U.S. should release report on torture after 9/11

The people should know how torture or “enhanced interrogation” became the policy of the United States in the fight against terrorism and its effectiveness, argues a Los Angeles Times editorial. Former government officials and U.S. lawmakers differ in opinion about the effectiveness of the policy, and the people should have the information needed to determine [...]

Filmmaker convicted of federal obscenity charges

A fetish filmmaker pleading he was protected by the First Amendment found his defense inadequate as he was convicted of federal obscenity charges and looking at a possible jail term of 25 years. A jury was not convinced by the filmmaker’s argument that he was an artist and under the legal definition of obscenity, found [...]

Chicago pledges not to enforce eavesdropping law during NATO summit

Chicago police won’t enforce Illinois’ controversial eavesdropping law during the NATO summit in May. The law makes it a felony to record a police officer without his or her consent. Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago to protest the summit, and civil rights advocates feared that police could use the eavesdropping law [...]

Request for public documents on ‘Fast and Furious’ operation yields blank pages

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms are stonewalling a CBS News investigation into its “Fast and Furious” operation which used “gunwalking,” the selling of guns to arms traffickers to track down leaders of Mexican drug cartels. No cartel leaders have been arrested and many of the weapons have been found at crime scenes in [...]

Free press limited to precious few countries

A report to be released on May 1 in recognition of World Press Freedom Day shows that around the world reporters are killed and news agencies harassed with impunity. Even the United States came in for criticism for widespread arrests of journalists covering the Occupy protests. -db From a commentary for the First Amendment Center, [...]

Federal appeals court rules that American Israel committee did not defame former director

The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee did not defame its former foreign policy director when it criticized his behavior during a federal investigation into an alleged leaking of classified information to him from a Pentagon employee in 2005. -db From the Courthouse News Service, April 30, 2012, by [...]

Times editorial: Public has right to know what super PACs spend on TV political ads

The Federal Communications Commission should require broadcasters to post their political ad sales on a national database to allow the public to know how much super PACs are spending and for what candidates and causes, argues a New York Times editorial. The broadcasters say the requirement would be too expensive and time-consuming. -db From an [...]

Opinion: ‘Liking’ of a Facebook page should qualify for First Amendment protection

A federal judge ruled against workers in a sheriff’s office who claimed they were fired for supporting his opponent in an election. The judge found no evidence that the sheriff knew the extent of their support and what he did know, that there was a “liking” of the opponent’s Facebook page, did not qualify for [...]

Federal court order for release of classified document creates hope

A federal court order that a classified document on the U.S. negotiating position in free trade talks must be released under the Freedom of Information Act will be appealed. But, writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News, the court’s rare order gives hope to those opposed to government overclassification. -db From a commentary in Secrecy News, [...]

Free speech: University of California students win ruling in tuition increase protest

A federal judge ruled that the University of California, Berkeley students were possibly the victims of discrimination when, rather than just receiving citations, they were arrested for protesting budget cuts and tuition hikes while sitting in at Wheeler Hall. The students claimed they were jailed for exercising their First Amendment rights to protest. -db From [...]

California: ‘Free spirit’ claims First Amendment protection in signing traffic ticket ‘Love Heals!’

A Marin County man, who goes by the name of Sierra Tunafish George Salin, found that the El Dorado County highway patrol were not amused by his signing his traffic ticket “LoveHeals!” They issued a warrant for his arrest. “This is a basic judicial impingement of my First Amendment free speech and expression, and a [...]

Federal judge backs Obama in his refusal to release bin Laden photos

President Barack Obama won a battle in federal court this week when the judge rejected a request from Judicial Watch to force the administration to release photos and video of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year. The judge refused to overrule the CIA  and Defense Department in its claim that [...]

California: Ex-Colton police chief loses lawsuit based on whistleblower claim

Colton’s former police chief claimed he was fired in 2007 for reporting corruption allegations against city officials, but the jury thought his evidence was lacking and found against him in his wrongful termination lawsuit. Colton’s attorney said that the former chief did not report the corruption early on and that testimony during the trial revealed [...]

$13.8 million judgment in Texas defamation trial over anonymous posts

After found not guilty of sexual assault of a woman in their Texas community, a couple were attacked anonymously on Topix, accused of drug abuse and dealing, murder and encouraging pedophilia. The couple was forced to move out of town, and the wife lost her business. After Topix helped the couple find the identity of [...]

Opinion: Chicago Tribune trusts local news coverage to ‘robots and content farms’

The Chicago Tribune fired 20 of its journalists and  employed a local company called Journatic to provide its local news, Mathew Ingram of GigaOM is asking if that outfit is just another “content farm” using robotic methods of complying the news. Some warn that using robots to provide news results in meaningless data while  others [...]

Indiana: School sued for suspending students for Facebook posts violating bullying policy

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is suing a school in federal court for suspending three eighth grade girls for Facebook posts the school says violated their policies on bullying, harassment and intimidation. The ACLU says the posts which discuss which of the girls’ classmates they would kill were made entirely in jest and [...]

Opinion: Son of late Nevada governor harassing reporter in court

Jeff Guinn, the son of the late Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, is so unhappy with the reporting of a lawsuit brought against him by investors that he is suing the reporter claiming she was bribed with personal favors to pursue the story. The problem is that even after losing in lower court, Guinn has appealed [...]

Opinion: Suggestions made for saving news industry

Speakers at a conference for media executives urged them to bolster the bottom line by radically changing the way they presented the news. Among their suggestions were to provide more context for and linkages to the news; provide more analysis; and employ alternatives to the narrative form, e.g., “Fusion Tables and query strings, status updates [...]

Marine discharged after posting anti-Obama comments on Facebook

To preserve the integrity of the chain of command, the commanding general for the San Diego region, ordered Sgt. Gary Stein to receive an other-than-honorable discharged from the Marine Corps. Stein had established an Armed Forces Tea Party page on Facebook and posted disparaging comments about President Barack Obama. The case has led to a [...]

First Amendment: Prom dress put on rack for resembling Confederate flag

School administrators were right to bounce a Tennessee high school student from her prom for wearing a dress resembling a Confederate flag, argues Ken Paulson for the First Amendment Center. Paulson said the school administrators were acting on the reality that the Confederate flag is divisive and could easily lead to disruption at the prom. [...]

Florida judge releases court records in Trayvon Martin shooting case

News organizations won a victory in a Florida court as the judge unsealed the court records in the prosecution of George Zimmerman. In the interests of a fair trial, Zimmerman’s defense team asked that the records be sealed, and a judge who since recused herself agreed to seal them. -db From the Reporters Committee for [...]

« Previous Page — Next Page »