donal brown

Principal censors student journalist stories on arrest of teacher found in car with teen-ager

A Kentucky high school principal has blocked publication of two stories for the school’s online publication on the arrest of a teacher caught half dressed in a car with a teen-ager. Although the district’s code of conduct and student bill of rights says school publications are free from censorship and prior restraint, the school district spokesman said the principal acted appropriately to secure as district policy states, “the rights of others or the orderly operations

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Citizen who tweeted raid on bin Laden compound provides challenge to traditional definition of journalist

In GigaOM, Mathew Ingram says the Pakistan computer programmer in Abbottabad who live-tweeted the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound deserves the label of “citizen journalist.” As mainstream journalists have done in reporting live events, the man answered questions, sought and shared news reports, traded what he knew with others to find out what was happening, and shared information and analyzed it. Ingram says critics who try to consign people like the programmer to

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Insurance analyst says her reporting Medicare fraud got her fired

A Michigan insurance analyst is suing Priority Health Managed Benefits for firing her for reporting fraud after they asked to narrow her focus and ignore deletes or false or incorrect codes that would  bring the company Medicare over payments. The analyst felt the company was asking her to commit fraud and called the Medicare hotline in January. In February she and four other analysts were fired. From the Courthouse News Service, May 09, 2011, by

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Open government group plans to sue for photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body

Judicial Watch is filing a request under the Freedom of Information act to obtain photos of Osama bin Laden after he was shot dead in a CIA raid in Pakistan. Judical Watch president Tom Fitton says the public’s right to know outweighs President Barack Obama’s reasons for withholding the photos, “We are prepared to sue if they don’t respond as they are supposed to under the law. I have not heard anything from the president

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California: Organizers of Memorial Day parade in Mill Valley want to exclude peace coalition

In 2009 the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition won a prize at the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade for its display of peace cranes with names of fallen soldiers, but this year the organizers want to ban the coalition from marching after some of their followers carried signs last year criticizing Israeli policies towards Palestinians. The organizers say the coalition could hold their own parade, but the coalition find the cost of liability insurance, from

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