Free speech: Supreme Court reaffirms ban on death row interviews

The Supreme Court will not hear the case of a death row inmate who claimed his First Amendment rights were violated by a federal policy that banned interviews with death row inmates. -db
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
March 8, 2010
By Curry Andrews
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would not hear the [...]

Survey shows online news supplanting print media as third most popular news venue

A survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 61 percent of readers get news online compared to 50 percent who regularly read newspapers. Seventy-eight perent view local news channels and 71 percent get news from national TV networks. -db
BBC News
March 1, 2010

Online news has become more popular than reading newspapers in the US, according [...]

Obama should back up Google with more than rhetoric: The US should challenge China’s “firewall” before the WTO.

PETER SCHEER—The US government is not powerless to influence China’s policies for censoring the internet. As Google has taken extraordinary steps–bordering on corporate civil disobedience–to challenge China’s stranglehold on the flow of information to and among its people, the Obama administration has acted as though its hands were tied. In fact, however, the administration does [...]

FBI investigating school district for activating webcams in student’s home

After a high school administrator accused a student of “inappropriate behavior,” it came out that, without the knowledge of the student or his parents, the administrator obtained a photo of the behavior at the student’s home from a webcam in a laptop issued by the school. -db
The Pittsburgh Channel.com
February 19, 2010
A law-enforcement official with [...]

Counselor sues Yuba college district over closed door session concerning salary hike

A counselor at the Yuba Community College District is suing the district for rescinding her salary raise in closed session. The superior court judge has allowed Yuba college officials to testify in a closed court session. db
Appeal-Democrat
February 18, 2010
By Ryan McCarthy

Three Yuba Community College District trustees are among witnesses an employee plans to call in [...]

Online revenue helps New York Times bottom line

The New York Times Company suffered a 20% drop in print advertising in the fourth quarter but gained 11% in digital advertising. -db

Online Media Daily

February 10, 2010
By Gavin O’Malley
The New York Times Company on Wednesday credited digital ad dollars with helping to soften the blow of another disappointing quarter.
“In the fourth quarter total advertising revenues [...]

A Illinois state political candidate is suing to remove atheist sign as ‘hate speech’

A Republican candidate for Illinois Comptroller is trying to remove a sign posted by an atheist group in religious holiday displays in the State Capitol. He claims the sign is “hate speech.” – db

Courthouse News Service
February 1, 2010
By Bridget Freeland

CHICAGO (CN) – A candidate for Illinois Comptroller has sued the state for allowing an atheist group [...]

Rights organization sues to obtain ethics report on Bush lawyers who wrote ‘torture memo’

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to force the Department of Justice to release to the public a report that explores possible ethics violations by the lawyers who wrote the Bush administration’s “torture memos.” -DB

American Civil Liberties Union
Press Release
January 22, 2010

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today to compel [...]

Libel suit based on tweet dismissed

A Illinois state court dismissed a defamation suit against a tenant who complained by tweet to 20 of her friends that her apartment was moldy. The judge ruled that the tweet was too vague to qualify as libel. -DB

Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
January 21, 2010
By Sam Bayard

Andrew Wang of Chicago Breaking News reports that an Illinois [...]

Rulings banning sex criminals from internet may pave road for draconian punishments for lesser offenders

While saying he is not defending child molesters, a blogger from the Citizen Media Law Center argues that banning Internet access for sex offenders may not only be too extreme as the Internet becomes more vital in everyday life, but it could result in banishment of teen-agers for sexting and a ban for those who [...]

FBI agent fired after sending unclassified documents to pro-Israel lobby

A Jewish-American FBI agent is suing for the right to defend himself against unspecified charges that resulted in his termination and the revocation of his security clearance. The agent had sent unclassified articles by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service and unclassified State Department documents to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. -DB

Secrecy News
Federation of American [...]

California state Court of Appeal revives attorney’s libel suit against employer

The First District Court of Appeal revived a San Rafael attorney’s suit against her law firm charging that an e-mail sent to the entire staff libeled her. -DB

Metropolitan News-Enterprise
January 14, 2010
By Sherri M. Okamoto
The First District Court of Appeal yesterday revived a San Rafael attorney’s libel action against her former law firm based on an [...]

Smaller news outlets may come with built-in agendas

Publishers and broadcasters are increasingly using new and lesser known news sources but have found that these sources may come with particular slants that should be acknowledged. -DB

The New York Times
January 18, 2010
By Richard Pérez-Peña

News comes from more and more outlets, about which readers know less and less.

Publishers and broadcasters have always called on freelance journalists. [...]

Supreme Court order blocking online access to video of Prop 8 trial is a mistake the camera-phobic justices will regret

PETER SCHEER—It’s hard to imagine a video of lawyers debating points of constitutional law going viral on YouTube, but the audience for the Proposition 8 trial — a lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage — is potentially vast. Unfortunately, that audience will have to wait. As the trial began, the U.S. [...]

More power to Google for its civil disobedience in China. Why does US-backed rival Baidu.com get a free ride?

BY PETER SCHEER—It’s not every day that a public corporation engages in what amounts to civil disobedience. But that, in effect, is what Google has done in halting censorship of search results on Google.cn–the Chinese language version of Google that is available inside China–in defiance of China’s laws.
More power to Google. Its unilateral action, coupled [...]

Written word alive and well

A study done by the University of San Diego and other universities revealed that Americans are reading far more words as the new technologies take hold. With the advent of TV, reading was in decline but has rebounded, tripling from 1980 to 2008. -DB

Wired
Commentary
December 29, 2009
By Eliot Van Buskirk

Conventional wisdom holds that YouTube, videogames, cable [...]

Law project provides legal assistance for online journalists

The Citizen Media Law Project has launched Online Media Legal Network, a new pro bono service to help online journalists and digital media creators who face legal challenges. -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
Press Release
November 19, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Berkman Center’s Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) announced today the public launch of its Online Media Legal [...]

Feds fail to spread alarm about tainted school lunches

Although tortillas from Chicago’s Del Rey Tortilleria have made children sick in more than 20 schools in recent years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not issued any warnings to  school officials. The tortillas have been distributed in schools in several states from Wisconsin to Massachusetts. -DB
USA TODAY
November 16, 2009
By Blake Morrison and [...]

YouTube provides way to connect news outlets with citizen journalists

YouTube Direct allows news agencies to gain access to content on Google’s video site uploaded daily by citizen journalists. -DB

Online Media Daily

November 17, 2009
By Laurie Sullivan
Google is unveiling a tool Tuesday that enables traditional television and online news agencies to create a platform to manage a bureau of citizen journalists. These mavericks capture life-changing events [...]

Reporters Without Borders director urges President to pressure China on web censorship

During his Asian trip, the Washington director of Reporters Without Borders urges Obama to privately raise the issues of web censorship and oppression of journalists and bloggers to the Chinese government. -DB
MediaShift
Commentary
November 10, 2009
By Clothilde Le Coz
In China, Google is forced to censor its search engine, Facebook and Twitter are blocked, U.S. news agencies [...]

Open government group finds little influence of campaign money on stimulus contracts

The National Institute on Money in State Politics checked campaign contributions against awards for stimulus contracts and found that only 3.2 percent of contract recipients donated to state political campaigns. -DB

Project on Government Oversight (POGO)
November 5, 2009
By Ingrid Drake
A few months ago, POGO blogged about our concerns that many state and local governments with laws [...]

Illinois: State attorney subpoenas personal records of students involved in Northwestern project to prove the innocence of convicted felon

The Illinois state attorney’s office has requested the e-mails, grades, course syllabi, expense reports and notes and tapes belonging to students formerly involved in the Innocence Project and in trying to prove the innocence of a man convicted of murder in 1978. The state attorney is trying to trace a grade motive for evidence produced in [...]

San Francisco Chronicle forestalls financial slide

San Francisco Chronicle
October 27, 2009
By David R. Baker

Despite a sharp drop in circulation, the San Francisco Chronicle says it is turning a profit “some weeks” after losing more than $50 million last year. Advertising revenues are also down, but by cutting newsroom costs and relying more on subscription revenues, the Chronicle feels it has survived [...]

Free speech: Federal court rules against sheriff in erotic advertising case

Craigslist won a legal battle recently when a federal court dismissed a lawsuit against the company for posting ads for “erotic services” on its website. the court agreed that Craigslist was protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and ws not responsible of the content of third parties.
-DB

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Legal Analysis
October 21, 2009
By [...]

Neighbors victorious in upholding state environmental and mining laws in Butte County

A citizen group is celebrating a recent court victory over Butte County and a mining company. They fought off a SLAPP suit and overturned a use permit granted to the New Era Mine for a gold mining operation in their neighborhood. The permit defied state environment and mining laws. -DB
Chico News & Review
Commentary
October 22, 2009
By [...]

FAC names free speech award winners–and one loser

The First Amendment Coalition, a California-based non-profit public interest group, has named the 2009 recipients of its awards for service in the cause of free speech, open government and the public’s right to know.  In contrast, the Coalition also has presented its “Darkness Award,” given in recognition of conduct that thwarts freedom of speech.
The Bill [...]

London: Barrage from Twitter, Goggle, Wikipedia forces disclosure of analysis of toxic dump in Ivory Coast

The New York Times
October 19, 2009
By Noam Cohen
A British court issued an injunction prohibiting the publication of an analysis of toxic waste dumped in the Ivory Coast by a contractor hired by Trifigura, a shipping company. Trafigura claimed the analysis confidential communication meant for their lawyers. But as one media law expert pointed out, any [...]

Obama tech chief bullish on using tech to promote open government in health care

In an interview with iHealthBeat, U.S. tech chief Aneesh Chopra said that the Obama administration is keen to be “open and transparent and engage the American people so their voice is heard in Washington without the need to hire a lobbyist….  -DB

iHealthBeat
October 13, 2009
By Kate Ackerman
SAN FRANCISCO – After giving the keynote speech at last week’s [...]

Transparency: Few Senate candidates file campaign finance information electronically

Only a handful of the 41 cosponsors of legislation requiring Senate candidates to e-file campaign finance information actually step up to the plate to file electronically. Filing in a timely way electronically would make elections far more transparent. -DB
Real Times Investigations
The Sunlight Foundation
Analysis
October 13, 2009
By Luke Rosiak
With all the foot-dragging that has accompanied legislation requiring [...]

Pilot program: State Department to promote democracy in the Middle East using social networking technologies

The U.S. State Department announced September 25 they are making cash awards to organizations to use social networking to increase civic participation in government in the Middle East and North Africa. Some see hope in what may be a less confrontational way of dealing with the lack of democracy in the region, but some governments [...]

As newspapers decline, politicians use social media to connect with voters

In some communities, social media is the only way politicians can reach voters, at times receiving immediate responses that speed the political process. -DB

MediaShift
September 29, 2009
By Steven Davy

When television cameras panned across the room full of senators and representatives during the recent presidential address to a joint session of Congress, the audience at home [...]

Professional hockey team hires own reporter to fill news gap

The Los Angeles Kings hockey team hired a veteran sports reporter to write stories about their hockey team,  promising that the reporter would have a long term contract and complete freedom in reporting and commentary. -DB

The New York Times
September 28, 2009
By Richard Pérez-Peħa
If your business depends on free publicity from newspapers, what do you do [...]

Assembly 2009 Program

PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE (subject to change)
Free Speech & Open Government Assembly
Saturday,  October 24, Los Angeles
8:00-9:00
Registration
9:00-10:15am
3 Panels
Tools for news coverage of local government.
Three panels (one in Spanish, a second in Vietnamese, and a third in English) will discuss specific uses of freedom of information laws and other means to obtain government records that can lead [...]

The new social media: Chats with readers can yield insights

The key to engaging the public in the news media in the information age could be to use the Socratic method in discussing important issues says a Belgian editor. -DB
MediaShift
September 22, 2009
By Roland Legrand
How can you unlock the creativity and insights of your community? Well, you can give community members a blank canvas and hope [...]

Environmental reporters in Egypt and China face devastating reprisals

It is not an easy life reporting about the environment in Egypt and China as the reporters face fines, law suits, censorship, death threats and prison. -DB
MediaShift
September 14, 2009
By Clothilde Le Coz
Since May 2009, Tamer Mabrouk has held one of the saddest records regarding human rights abuses in Egypt. He is the first blogger to [...]

Challenged by participatory journalism, mainstream media doing little to change

Research is showing that the advent of participatory journalism has had scant effect on mainstream journalism. The traditional news outlet do little to collaborate on stories with citizen journalists and in general limit the role of the audience to commentary after publication. -DB
MediaShift
Commentary
September 15, 2009
By Alfred Hermida
The ability of anyone to play an active role [...]

Military court rejects reporter’s privilege supporting military’s quest to serve subpoena on CBS

Citing a Supreme Court precedent, a military appeals court found that military courts should not recognize a reporter’s privilege rejecting CBS’s contention that the First Amendment creates a reporter’s privilege in military courts.-DB
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
September 1, 2009
A military appeals court has found that military courts should not recognize a reporter’s privilege, [...]

AG Opinion 07-208 (5/19/08)

In response to a request made under the California Public Records Act for the names
of peace officers involved in a critical incident, such as one in which lethal force was used,
a law enforcement agency must disclose those names unless, on the facts of the particular
case, the public interest served by not disclosing the names clearly [...]

Centers for Disease Control set up website for tracking public health info

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have established a web set so that citizens can track and report environmental hazards and health problems. It will also provide information on asthma, cancer and certain air and water pollutants. -DB
OMB Watch
August 18, 2009
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently launched a website to allow the [...]

Judge overturns expulsion of student for online posting

Avoiding the First Amendment issues, a judge ruled that a University of Louisville nursing student could not be expelled for her blog post which the university said had violated the nursing Honor Code and the childbirth course Confidentiality Agreement. -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
August 12, 2009
By Lee Baker
Once again, the powers that be are all in [...]

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