Blogger sued for copying news article claims license provided for republication

A blogger sued by the Las Vegas Review-Journal for republishing one of its articles has argued that the newspaper gave him “implied license” to republish by encouraging readers to save links to the work and send the links to others. -db
Online Media Daily
August 18, 2010
By Wendy Davis
A blogger sued for allegedly reposting a Las [...]

Iranian bloggers at great risk in using Internet

In the last year since the protests over the Iranian election, the government has arrested 170 bloggers and journalists with 22 receiving prison sentences totaling more than 135 years. Authoritarian governments are sharing technology aimed at stifling dissent and in the last two years have increased their effectiveness in silencing critics. -db

Voice of America
June 9, [...]

Police action in invading editor’s house in Gizmodo iPhone case said in conflict with California law

A director at the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard says that in seizing a Gizmodo editor’s computers, the police most likely violated the state’s shield law.-db

Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
April 26, 2010
By Sam Bayard

Gizmodo announced this afternoon that California police seized computers and servers from the home of its reporter/editor Jason Chen on Friday night. [...]

New York City considers press credentials for bloggers

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to allow online journalists and bloggers press credentials. The proposal comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed by three bloggers denied access to city events. -db

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
March 3, 2010
By Christine Beckett
New York City and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new policy that would allow [...]

Opinion: Time for bloggers to gain protections afforded traditional media

With more of the public gaining their news from online sources rather than print media and using the social media to become more interactive and participatory in accessing the news, a CMLP blogger argues that bloggers should be entitled to the same protection as mainstream press. -db
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
March 1, 2010
By Andrew Moshirnia

Well, it [...]

Bloggers replace mainstream media in covering local government

Bloggers using Twitter and Facebook are filling the void to cover local government meetings, taking the place of mainstream media suffering losses of revenue as the internet takes its share of ads. -DB
MediaShift
January 14, 201
By Steven Davy

Traditionally, newspaper reporters were dispatched to cover the mundane proceedings of a local government in action: the city council meeting. [...]

2009 a bad year for free speech online

2009 was not a good year for free speech online as China and Iraq set a dismal standard. Even democratic countries considered ways to censor online expression. -DB
MediaShift
January 11, 2010
By Clothilde Le Coz
2009 was an unprecedented year for online repression.
For the first time since the Internet emerged as a tool for public use, there are [...]

Law student chides TSA for violating blogger’s rights

A Citizen Media Law Project blogger says the recent attempt of the Transportation Security Administration to serve citizen bloggers with subpoenas after the bloggers published new airport security directives shows that the agency needs judicial checks and its power to subpoena stripped. -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
January 4, 2010
By Andrew Moshirnia

In recent years, the American public [...]

Women’s group sues Google for bloggers’ defamation

The National Association of Professional Women is suing Google and three other Web sites for publishing bloggers’ statements that say the organization is a scam. -DB

Courthouse News Service
December 31, 2009
By Barbara Leonard

MINEOLA, N.Y. – The National Association of Professional Women claims Google and three other Web sites defamed it by allowing bloggers to publish defamatory [...]

TSA puts heat on blogger posting new screening procedures

Armed agents from the Transportation Security Administration visited two bloggers in their homes with subpoenas, seeking the identity of the source who provided a document revising screening procedures for airports after the recent aborted bombing attempt by a Nigerian man. -DB

Wired
Threat Level
December 30, 2009
By Kim Zetter

Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents [...]

Federal shield bill for reporters passes major hurdle

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the federal media shield bill to the full Senate after months of debate and amendments. The contentious issue of whether bloggers and other citizen journalists will be covered by the bill has yet to be determined. -DB
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
December 10, 2009
By Cristina Abello

The Senate [...]

Federal shield law moving forward in Senate after compromise forged with White House

The federal journalist shield law cleared a major hurdle when the Obama administration cut a deal with the Senate to include freelancers and online journalists. The bill also includes a public-interest balance test so that a judge could weigh the public interest in secrecy against the public interest in disclosure. -DB

Reporters Committee for Freedom of [...]

Bloggers cut from senate shield law

Under both House and Senate versions of the federal shield law, only employed journalists will be protected. A former Christian Science Monitor editor says the failure to include citizen journalists ignores the reality of the modern era and who provides accurate, up-to-date news. -DB

Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
September 28, 2009
By Arthur Bright
For citizen journalists, the [...]

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 [...]

Hard truth: Traditional journalism must innovate to survive in changing information climate

A fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society argues that the internet has killed off the mass media with many important benefits to a thriving democratic society. -DB
Center for Internet and Society
Commentary
September 8, 2009
By Sarah Hinchliff Pearson
Sometimes changes are so basic and world-changing that they can be difficult to recognize. Having just finished Losing [...]

Venezuelan president clamping down on media

A United States unclassified intelligence report says that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is aggressively silencing his media critics, including bloggers. He has proposed a law that would make it a crime to report on anything the government finds objectionable.  -DB
Open Source Center
Analysis
August 3, 2009
President Chavez’s government is moving forcefully to silence critics by introducing a Media Crimes [...]