firstamendment

Federal judge’s order shutting down wikileaks.org, a whistleblower website, is 1st Amendment travesty By Peter Scheer Wikileaks.org, a whistleblower website that enables the anonymous (and, in theory, untraceable) leaking of confidential government and corporate documents, has gone dark. Although Wikileaks’ silencing was sought by antidemocratic governments worldwide–including China, whose censors work mightily to block all access to the site–wikileak’s plug was pulled, ironically, by a federal judge in San Francisco. Acceding to the wishes of

Rating the leading Presidential candidates on First Amendment issues. And the winner is . . . By Peter Scheer Voters generally don’t pick a presidential candidate on the basis of a single issue–nor should they. But with the presidential campaign accelerating toward potentially decisive primaries in the next few weeks, it’s worth considering how the leading contenders compare in their commitment to First Amendment rights. All political leaders are champions of free speech and open-government–in

Anonymous speech, although constitutionally protected, is mostly digital graffiti. Freedom of expression means taking responsibility for what you write. By Peter Scheer A Chinese blogger, defying a government censorship decree, publishes information about the crash of a military transport plane. Another blogger, an Egyptian, posts photos of the scarred body of a teenager who was tortured by Egyptian police. Both bloggers are anonymous. No one can doubt these speakers’ need to hide their identities. Their

Readers respond to article criticizing anonymous postings Amen. -Mark Baird Alameda CA — The author reveals to us that his name is Peter Scheer and he works for something called the California First Amendment Coalition. However we do not know who financed and established the organization or whether the author represents a client, or who that client may be. I suspect he does in fact represent a client organization that he is reluctant to reveal