With travel costs eating up the budgets of the big media companies, they will look to save money by ending man-to-man coverage of also rans including Newt Gingrich, predicts John Ellis of BuzzFeed.-db

From a commentary in BuzzFeed, January  31, 2012, by John Ellis.

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The Reporters Committee  for Freedom of the Press did not like a federal appeals decision upholding a law restricting access to Virginia state records by non-residents. The court ruled that the restriction was not unconstitutional.

The Reporters Committee felt the court should have considered the effect of the restriction on smaller journalistic enterprises. -db

From a commentary by The Reporters Committee  for Freedom of the Press, February 1, 2012.

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that non-residents have no right to Virginia public records under the state’s freedom of information law. Non-residents were challenging the law claiming it was unconstitutional.

The two non-residents who sued the state were seeking child support documents and real estate tax assessment records. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 1, 2012, by You-Jin Han.

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Six journalists were arrested at an Occupy Oakland protest at Oakland City Hall where protesters broke in and vandalized the walls. That brings the total of journalists arrested during the protests to 52.

The reporters included those from KGO, an ABC affiliate, Mother Jones and the San Francisco Chronicle. As of now, it is not known why they were arrested. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 30, 2012, by Rachel Bunn.

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A grieving family is suing Hustler Magazine for $20 million after the magazine published nude photos of a model who was murdered by her husband.

Hustler is claiming that the model was a public figure and newsworthy. -db

From the  Daily Mail, January 26, 2012, by Daily Mail Reporter.

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Prosecutors in the case of a former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling accused of leaking classified information are attempting to reverse a lower court finding that a New York Times reporter James Risen was exempt from disclosing his sources for a story on a CIA program to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

The government prosecutors claim that there is no right for reporters to withhold identities of sources in criminal cases. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, January 17, 2012, by Steven Aftergood.

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A reporter has sued President Barack Obama saying that under the Homeland Battlefield Bill reporters simply doing their job could be thrown in jail without due process.

Signed into law last December 31, the bill authorizes the military to indefinitely detain without charge or trial anyone accused of supporting terrorists anywhere in the world. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, January 17, 2012, by Adam Klaasfeld.

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An Indiana journalism adviser sued the Greater Clark County Schools claiming the the high school’s administrators were suspending her for her support of student’s First Amendment rights.

The school suspended her claiming that in 2008 she had mismanaged the yearbook, but the adviser said the suspension came after the administrators objected to stories about security cameras and student discipline and tried to install prior review which she opposed. -db

From the Student Press Law Center, January 5, 2012, by Brian Schraum with contributions from Emily Gerston.

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How does the First Amendment protect reporters on the OWS protest frontlines?  Attorney and University of Missouri Journalism Fellow Jonathan Peters spells it out in The Nation:

FAQ: What Are the Rights of Reporters Covering Protests? | The Nation.

A Turkish investigative reporter was arrested on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. Ironically, he had been investigating the plot only a year earlier.

Human rights groups say the government is trying to silence critics with a campaign that puts the government’s commitment to democracy in question. -db

From The New York Times, January 5, 2012, by Dan Bilefsky and Sebnem Arsu.

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Police entered the offices of Global Revolution that runs livestream on Occupy Wall Street and arrested six of its operators on Monday effectively shutting down the site which had aggregated livestreaming of Occupy Wall Street worldwide.

The arrests were made because the six were living in the offices and refused to honor an order to vacate since the premises were deemed by authorities “imminently perilous to life.” -db

From The Atlantic Wire, January 3, 2012, by Adam Martin.

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The Anaheim City Attorney is investigating an e-mail sent by a planning department official ordering employees to purge unnecessary records at the risk of disciplinary action.

The order came after the Voice of OC filed a California Public Records Act request for communications to and from city council members. -db

From the Voice of OC, January 4, 2012, by Adam Elmahrek.

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The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a court could force a reporter to testify in a lawsuit against plastic surgeons.

A woman brought the lawsuit against her plastic surgeons who gave her partially nude photos to  the reporter who worked for a Missouri newspaper. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 4, 2012, by Chris Healy.

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was unimpressed with the lawyer of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, trashing her argument that the sheriff was not liable under the First Amendment for his attacks on The Phoenix New Times.

The lawyer failed to recognize that their appeal vacated an earlier opinion setting aside an argument about conspiracy. The lawyer was unprepared to answer the court’s questions concerning that issue. -db

From the  Courthouse News Service, December 16, 2011, by David Tartre.

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In a suit alleging that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio arrested two Phoenix newspaper executives on false charges in retaliation for unflattering coverage in the newspapers, Arpaio’s lawyer came under tough questioning.

One of the key questions is whether the sheriff himself authorized the arrest of the publishers under subpoenas which  were never approved by a grand jury. -db

From The Recorder, December 14, 2011,  by Kate Moser.

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A U.S. district judge is no longer asking Chicago reporters to provide notes of interviews with a juror who did not admit to two felony convictions in filling out court papers prior to serving in a high profile trial.

The trial concerned a charge that a man tried to extort money from a film producer trying to buy a share of the state Teacher Retirement System pension fund. -db

From the Chicago Sun-Times, December 15, 2011, by Abdon M. Pallasch.

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The Milford-Miami Advertiser must defend itself in court in a defamation claim over an article it ran that a police officer “had sex with a woman while on the job.” The reference was to allegations 13 years before a current sex scandal investigation.

Even though he was fired for various other offenses, the officer said it was never substantiated that he had sex with anyone while on duty and was reinstated as a police officer. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, December 13, 2011, by Kevin Koeninger.

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The Chicago Tribune is deciding its course of action after a federal judge ordered thier reporter to turn over notes and other document in the case of a juror who concealed her criminal record in the William Cellini trial.

Cellini was convicted last month for attempted extortion. The Tribune suggested that the court should first question the woman’s fellow jurors, family and other close associates. -db

From the Chicago Tribune, December 13, 2011, by Stacy St. Clair.

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A  Desert Hot Springs contractor claims that a KNEWS talk show host defamed him. The contractor said the host depicted him as a wanted felon who collected child pornography.

The contractor was convicted for writing a bad check in 2008 but says the current allegations against him were false, invaded his privacy, brought his children ridicule  and ruined his business. The station said it broadcast true information in the public interest. -db

From The Desert Sun, December 10, 2011, by Kate McGinty.

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The New York Times columnist Nick Kristof and his collegue were tear-gassed and taken into custody by Bahraini police during a protest in Sitra.

The police said the detention was for Kristof’s own good. Kristof has been critical of the Bahraini government. -db

From The Wrap,  December 9, 2011, by Lucas Shaw.

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In ruling against an Oregon blogger who lost a $2.5 million defamation suit, a federal judge refused to grant the woman standing as a journalist.

Writing for The New York Times, David Carr argued that in examining the facts, he found that the blogger had mounted a scurrilous campaign of  lies to ruin a lawyer and his business, the Obsidian Finance Group. None of what she reported, that the lawyer committed tax fraud and was a thief and thug was ever collaborated says Carr. -db

From a commentary in The New York Times, December 11, 2011, by David Carr.

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In attempting to regulate spending of corporations on political campaigns and candidates, legislation introduced in Congress would eliminate newspaper editorials about candidates or ballot measures, writes Eugene Volokh in The Volokh Conspiracy.

Intended as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the law would restrict newspapers and media businesses organized as for-profit corporations from spending money to publish or broadcast anything that would have the purpose of electing a candidate or passing a ballot measure. -db

From a commentary in The Volokh Conspiracy, December 9, 2011, by Eugene Volokh.

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The Obama administration is still insisting that cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified even though the cables were released by the State Department in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request.

The classified information concerned targeted killings, detention at Guantanamo, torture and rendition. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, December 7, 2011, by Nathan Freed Wessler and Anna Estevao.

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The president of the Society of Professional Journalists called for the end of the “alarming trend” of the arrests of journalists at Occupy demonstrations. John C. Ensslin said he covered the crime beat and that his brother was a police officer and so that he understands the difficult situations confonting police.

He proposes that both reporters and law enforcement official own up to mistakes made in the field and that authorities drop charges against reporters who were only doing their jobs. Ensslin also offered to set up forums with reporters and city officials to exchange views on the arrests. -db

From a commentary for the Society of Professional Journalists, by John C. Ensslin.

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A blogger who wrote critical articles about an investment firm lost a $2.5 million defamation suit to the firm after an U.S. District Court judge ruled that she was not a journalist so not under the protection of the Oregon media shield law. She could not therefore withhold the identity of a source needed to verify the one statement that the judge found libelous. -db

From a commentary in Seattle Weekly, December 6, 2011, by Curtis Cartier.

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A Lousiana state appeals court ruled that a reporter with KNOE-TV was not liable for the suicide of a blind man who allegedly committed a sexual assault against a blind student. The reporter had reported that the alleged crime was under investigation and named the accused. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, December 6, 2011, by Jeff D. Gorman.

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A Sacramento lawyer found herself in court the same day  arguing two sides of the First Amendment in two separate trials, in one to keep the press and public out of pretrail hearings in a sensational murder trial and the other to defend Occupy Sacramento protesters on free speech grounds.

In both trials she was arguing”time, place and manner” restrictions on free speech and/or press. -db

From the Sacramento Bee,  December  4, 2011, by Andy  Furillo.

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The Courthouse News Service lost a round in court when a federal judge refused to hear a case over a court clerk’s delay in providing access to new civil actions. Courthouse News contended that the delays violated their free press rights in that by the time they received access, the cases were old news.

The judge said it was not the role of a federal judge to intervene in a state court’s business. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, November 29, 2011, by Bill Girdner.

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Righthaven’s methods in pursuing copyright violations turned out to be bogus and unfair resulting in its bankruptcy, but, says Jeffrey D. Neuburger in MediaShift, it would be too bad if the company did not survive long enough to pursue appeals lest newspapers lose ground in receiving just compensation for their work. -db

From a commentary for MediaShift, December 1, 2011, by Jeffrey D. Neuburger.

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After dropping nearly a million dollars in legal bills, the Raleigh-Durham International Airport came to an agreement with the newspapers  to allow coin-operated newspaper vending boxes back into the airport.

A federal district court had ruled that the ban on news racks violated the First Amendment. -db

From the News Observer, November 26, 2011, by Bruce Siceloff.

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WikiLeaks has changed the face of journalism and contributed more scoops this year than any other media outlet, reports Trevor Timm in a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In using the Espionage Act to prosecute WikiLeaks, the federal government poses a real threat to the mainsream media and the First Amendment, argues Timm. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 28, 2011, by Trevor Timm.

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The free press took a blow when early this morning the New York Police Department raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment and lashed out at journalists covering the event.

Many journalists were kept away from the action taken by the police to clear Zucotti Park. Many were subjected to violence and arrested with the protesters. -db

From The Huffington Post, November 15, 2011, by Jack Mirkinson.

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The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the Federal Communications Commission policy on indecency runs afoul of the First Amendment, even to the point of forcing broadcasters out of business with excessive fines.

The Reporters Committee recommended that that a clear standard be set when regulating expletives or indecent material and that the broadcast industry be allowed to regulate themselves. -db

From a press release by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November 11, 2011.

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The Village Voice Media’s Backpage.com includes an adult section with the majority of ads involving adults, but occasionally or rarely an ad slips buy involving sex with minors. Revenue from “adult” sections help publications such as The Village Voice stay afloat, but as one theologian said, “Even if one minor is sold for sex, it is one too many.”

The Voice is under pressure to drop the adult section, but the owners point out that they are only providing a forum and are not legally responsible for the content and see the controversy as a free speech issue. -db

From a commentary in The New York Times, October 30, 2011, by David Carr.

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A policy under consideration by the Seattle School Board would give principals the authority for prior review of high school newspapers and allow a stop to publication if they detected libel, obscenity and violations of the school’s educational mission.

Critics argue that the principal would gain censorship powers and take responsibility for content out of students’ hands with the result that legal liability would rest solely on the administration. -db

From the Seattle Times, November 7, 2011, by Brian M. Rosenthal.

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A freelance cartoonist covering Occupy Oakland with a press pass was arrested and held 14 hours charged with failing to disperse and obstructing. -db

From KGO-TV News, November 3, 2011, by Ama Daetz.

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The First Amendment establishes a free press with the corollary need for journalists to report freely. When police arrest reporters as they did in Nashville during the Occupy Nashville protests, they are attacking the right of citizens to independent sources on what the government is doing, writes Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center. -db

From a commentary for the  First Amendment Center, October 31, 2011, by Gene Policinski.

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In attempting to clear a street, Milwaukee policemen arrested a Milwaukee Sentinel Journal photographer covering a march near a university campus in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The police claimed the photographer did not identify herself as a journalist. -db

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 2, 2011, by By Karen Herzog with contributions from Sharif Durhams.

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Despite the promise of the Arab Spring, bloggers world-wide are seen as threats to public order and  arrested and imprisoned for speaking out for democratic reform.

Bloggers are in danger in many countries including Syria, Egypt, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. -db

From a commentary by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 27, 2011, by Jillian C. York.

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Health reporters got a kick in the rear recently when the Obama administration withdrew a public database about doctor malpractice, writes Justin Silverman for the Citizens Media Law Project.

The move came after a number of reporters used the national database to write stories about how their state regulators were reluctant to discipline doctors for malpractice. -db

From the Citizens Media Law Project, October 20, 2011, by Justin Silverman.

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