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donal brown

College campuses: Harassment speech law reintroduced in Congress

donal brown March 15, 2011

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is opposing the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act recently reintroduced in Congress that prohibits harassment of students based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion. Writing for FIRE, William Creeley says that there are already adequate laws on the books and that the proposed law threatens freedom of speech on campus, “The legislation’s definition of harassment is vague and subjective, and

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Political patisans load up on deceit largely discarded by reporters

donal brown March 15, 2011

As the recent assaults on NPR, Planned Parenthood and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker show, deceit is thriving as a tactic in the political arena as reporters in disguise are becoming rare. Politicians are wary of the tactics but like the benefits. Journalists are finding little public tolerance of deceit in news gathering New York Times’ reporter Jeremy W. Peters quotes Tom Rosenstiel, director of Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism about the news industry’s retreat,

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Libel rules with impunity on social network

donal brown March 15, 2011

The younger generation is filing few libel suits for such as lies and character assassination, fueling speculation that they have greater tolerance of “hurly, burly Internet conversation.” Or is it just that young people realize that bloggers have limited resources, decimating the chances of obtaining damages? -db From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, March 14, 2011, by Kevin Giles. Full Story

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UK introduces new libel law to end abuses

donal brown March 15, 2011

The United Kingdom has proposed a new libel law, virtually eliminating juries, sharply curtailing libel tourism, bolstering freedom of speech and protecting the press engaging in investigative reporting. The Minister of State for Justice Lord McNally said, “We have been trying to get the balance right between proper protections and the oft-used accusation that the law as it operates now creates a chilling effect on free speech and on information right across the board, from

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FOIA: Federal appeals court denies acess to mugshots

donal brown March 15, 2011

In a departure from a ruling of another circuit, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a mug shot was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. The court said to release the mug shots would violate the person’s privacy rights. Writing for The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Christine Beckett says, “The issue of access to mug shots made news last month when requests were made to see the mug

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